The Kuusiluoto of many eras

The Kuusiluoto district, with its beautiful wooden houses, is located right next to the city centre, on the edge of the estuary. Along the pedestrian bridge you can also reach the now uninhabited Sonnisaari to enjoy its peaceful atmosphere. In the 1700s, Kuusiluoto was still an island, like Sonnisaari, and both were used as sheepfolds for the town's inhabitants. Today, Kuusiluoto is part of the mainland due to land uplift, the Oulu River and filling.

According to the town plan after the fire of 1822, Kuusiluoto was built as a traditional 19th-century Finnish timber town, which became a residential area for sailors and craftsmen. A third of the buildings in the area date from the 19th century, another third from 1900-1920. A third era is represented by the stone houses built in the turn of the 1950s to replace those destroyed in the bombing of the Continuation War.

Sonnisaari has also been inhabited since the late 19th century and has been home to a hospital for the sick since 1892, as well as the first municipal maternity hospital in the city of Oulu from 1903 to 1925.Now the island is a nature reserve, where you can explore the vegetation of the coastal meadows and marshland and the deciduous park forest.

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