Europe – Destinations

Finland: 17th to 19th-Century Wrecks at Hanko

Diver at port side of the figurehead wreck Osborn & Elisabeth in Hanko, Finland
Diver at port side of the wooden figurehead wreck Osborn & Elisabeth in Hanko, Finland

To help promote dive tourism in the Baltic Sea, the European Union’s Project Baltacar, a collaboration between Sweden, Finland and Estonia, has developed underwater heritage trails for visiting a selection of unique wreck sites in the three countries. In Finland, the project has established buoys and created dive site maps for a group of five wrecks from the 17th to the 19th centuries, located just outside Hanko. Susanne Lundvall reports.

Denmark's Øresund & Isefjord

Anemone, Øresund, Denmark. Photo by Morten Bjørn Larsen
Anemone on Anemone Wreck, Øresund, Denmark. Photo by Morten Bjørn Larsen

Diving in Denmark, how does it really measure up? Since Morten Bjørn Larsen lives in Copenhagen, he talks about his favorite dives in and around the island of Zealand, where the capital city is located. Several wrecks in Øresund and a bridge in Isefjord top the list.

Denmark: M/F Ærøsund

Ærøsund wreck. Photo by Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard
Diver on Ærøsund on the day it was sunk. Photo by Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard

M/F Ærøsund is a former ferry that served the islands in the South Funen archipelago. It was scuttled in 2014 in a sheltered bay just 550m off Funen’s southern coastline where it now rests at a depth of only 19m. It is easily visible from the surface.

Denmark: Diving & Dining

Beer and bridge, Little Belt, Denmark. Photo Peter Symes
Danish Carlsberg beer and the Old Little Belt Bridge where porpoises were spotted playing in the bay, Middelfart, Denmark. Photo Peter Symes

From the capital city of Copenhagen, across the Great Belt to Funen and the Little Belt to Jutland, travelling through the green fields of the Danish countryside, Scott Bennett describes his diving and dining adventure through Denmark, stopping along the way for a five-course meal at one of the 25 Micheline star restaurants found across the country.

Wrecks of Russia's Lake Ladoga

Islands of the Valaam Archipelago in Lake Ladoga, Russia. Photo by Stanislav Trofimov.
Islands of the Valaam Archipelago in Lake Ladoga, Russia. Photo by Stanislav Trofimov.

Ladoga is a magical lake—a location and natural monument that fascinates many tourists. In Europe, it is the second largest lake after the Caspian Sea. Sergey Kulikov takes us on a journey to this body of fresh water, located in northeastern Russia, just outside of Saint Petersburg, and reports on an expedition to some of the wrecks that can be found here.