In English

The St Olav’s Mainland Way is a part of the St. Olav’s Ways pilgrimage paths

In the future, St Olav’s pilgrimage ways extend from Novgorod to Trondheim. In the St Olav’s Mainland Way -project the route passes through the Continental Finland. The project started in September 2017.

The two-year lasting project is coordinated by the Brahea Centre at the University of Turku. The aim of the project is to create a St Olav Pilgrimage Way that runs from the eastern edge of Finland through inland to Turku. In the future, the route will be extended to begin already from Novgorod, Russia, to continue in Finland, but this will take place within another project.

Today the pilgrimage way continues from Turku and passes through the Archipelago Sea to Grislehamn. This route has been prepared under the St Olav Waterway project. In Sweden the route joins the existing St Olav route. Along this way you can go all the way to Trondheim, Norway.

The project promotes Finnish rural development and national and international cooperation

The St Olav Mainland Way -project is funded by The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (Programming period 2014-2020). The program runs in eight Leader groups: Varsin Hyvä ry, Varsinais-Suomen Jokivarsikumppanit ry, Ravakka ry, Karhuseutu ry, Joutsentenreitti ry, Linnaseutu ry, Päijänne-Leader ry and Veej’jakaja ry. The main points of the route are the St. Olav’s Churches: Sysmä, Kalvola (Hämeenlinna), Kalvola (Hämeenlinna), Tyrvää (Sastamala), Ulvila, Rauma, Kalanti (Uusikaupunki), Yläne (Pitäjä) and Lemu (Masku).

St Olav Mainland Way completes one of the most extensive and versatile pilgrimage ways in the Nordic countries. At the same time Finland will become close part of the European pilgrimage paths. This also enables the development of the new working possibilities and services for the Finnish countryside. Once completed, the St Olav Mainland Way will have both the logos and the signposts, and the international cooperation and recognition in common with the Nordic network.

In February 2018 a new bilingual association was set up to manage the St Olav’s ways in Finland and Åland. Olavsleder and Finland rf – The Finnish Olavinreitit ry is now part of the Olav’s Ways network of Nordic Olav’s routes.