Mustavuori fortress is a 100-year-old construction from World War I. Or actually it’s partly nature’s own construction and partly human’s construction. At the time of the first World War, Finland was part of the Russian Empire and Mustavuori was part of the defence plan for St. Petersburg, fighting the threat from the Baltic Sea.

Mustavuori locates about halfway of Vuosaari and Mellunmäki, the two endpoints of eastbound metro lines. The fortress area is about 2,5 km from Mellunmäki metro station, so it’s totally reachable with public transportation and by foot. And again, if you’ve rented a (mountain or fat) bike – this is an ideal destination.

When you enter the area, you’ll first walk a typical Finnish jogging trail. Suddenly the trail turns into a cobblestone road – in the middle of forest! Cobblestone road was built to enable moving around the cannons.

After a bit of walking, you’ll notice trenches. If you take off from the cobblestone road and start following the trench, you’ll end up into a canyon which the army of the Russian Czar has probably valued high when talking about war construction. There’s also a cool cave in the area, so take your flash light with you.

Mustavuori is a historical conservation area, so moving around with respect is the way to go. It’s ok to hike in the area and to pick berries and mushrooms, but don’t move the stones and don’t trash. Next to the fortress there’s a nature conservation area, and on spring time it’s allowed to walk only on pathways.

I’ll return to Mustavuori for sure a bit later in the autumn, and then I’ll be after mushrooms. Let’s hope for some rain now to secure at least some kind of a mushroom harvest.

Mustavuori fortress
00890 Helsinki