Malmi Airport selected to the global List of 100 Most Endangered Cultural Sites

24 September 2003

The historic, living aviation milieu of Malmi Airport in Helsinki, Finland, has been selected onto the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites 2004. The list was made public in New York on 24 September 2003. The application for Malmi Airport was submitted in December 2002 by the Friends of Malmi Airport Society, supported by the National Board of Antiquities Finland and the Aviation Museum Society.

The World Monuments Watch Programme of the international, non-profit World Monuments Fund (http://www.wmf.org) publishes a list of the 100 most endangered cultural treasures around the world every two years. The sites are selected from submitted applications by an international panel of leading experts in the field. A representative of the UNESCO World Heritage Center is included in the panel.

Among the other sites on the 2004 list are the Great Wall Cultural Landscape (Beijing) in China, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Expedition Hut in the Antarctica, Niniveh and Nimrud palaces in Iraq, the Dampier Rock Art Complex in Australia, Battersea Power Station in United Kingdom, and historic Lower Manhattan in New York.

At age 65, lively Helsinki-Malmi Airport is the oldest still active civilian airport in Finland, by far the most important center of aviation education in the country, and the sole general aviation airfield in the capital region. National Board of Antiquities Finland has defined the Airport as a site of national importance. As a living whole, Helsinki-Malmi is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a 1930's international airport. The Airport is threatened by being shut down and turned into a housing project in 2006.

The Friends of Malmi Airport Society (http://www.pelastamalmi.org/en/index.html), founded on 23 March 2002, aims to secure the preservation of the Airport at its present location and to develop, promote and support its operation.