Viabundus Finland 1350–1650 - Database and GIS-location -project of late medieval and early modern roads in Finland

The aim of the Viabundus Finland 1350–1650 research project is to compile historical geospatial data (HGIS) on traffic routes and traffic related infrastructure of medieval and early modern Finland into a unified database and a map interface, and to make them open to the public. The three-year project is funded by the Kone Foundation. The project leader and responsible researcher is Dos. Tapio Salminen (Tampere University and University of Turku). The project management team includes representatives from the Tampere University's TRIVIUM Research Center (Tampere Center for Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Tampere), the University of Turku's Landscape Studies degree program (Pori) and the National Postal Museum (Tampere).

Viabundus Finland is part of the Viabundus project, founded in 2019 by the Institut für Historische Landesforschung (University of Göttingen) and the Research Center for Hanse and Baltic History in Lübeck, with the aim of producing its own projects and a digital map of the Northern European Alpine Transport Network and related systems based on it.

Viabundus Finland integrates information on medieval and early modern traffic routes in Finland enabling its use in multidisciplinary research and various applications. The database and map created in the project include information on the Finnish road and traffic infrastructure (inns, taverns, postal system, market places and times, customs points, landing sites) in the years 1350–1650. The database can be used in research on the history of Finnish infrastructure and society, in regional planning, in work supporting the preservation of the layers of the cultural landscape, and in teaching. The information collected in the project is based on existing research on the history of traffic routes, historical maps, and source material. The database will be implemented as an independent sub-project in accordance with the model developed by the European Viabundus project. The completed and tested technical solutions help the project to focus on the actual content: locating traffic routes and their infrastructure, making research on transport infrastructure and accessibility of different locations, and mapping historical spatial information on traffic routes in 1350-1650.

Kone Foundation.

Trivium - Tampere Centre for Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Tampereen yliopisto), Kulttuurituotannon ja maisemantutkimuksen tutkinto-ohjelma (Turun yliopisto, Pori), Postimuseo (Tampere).