I lived in Finland for 6 months last year during a 6-month internship and I was amazed by this country. Although one thing troubled me. I lived near Turku and I was every now and then in Helsinki. And in so many streets I would see poles like in the photos. For my entire time here I wondered what these were for. I thought about snow, gas, electricity, cameras, mirrors, an art project,… but no hypothesis satisfied me and my friends enough and we would always find a counter example. Some poles are found deep in bushes, some can be found by pairs with one of them being shorter than the other, and some are also installed across streets in a perfectly symmetrical manner. I asked around to some fins but no one seems to have a definite answer or no one seems to be willing to divulge this secret!!!! And 4 months later I’m still wondering what these are and for what purpose where they installed. My only hope is that one of you has the answer and would so kindly put this puzzling mystery to rest so I can finally find sleep again.

15 comments

  3. Used also to protect pedestrians from the cars. Especially in winter time when it is slippery, i.e. car crash in intersection may send the cars to unwanted directions.

  6. They are selfie globes. Sometimes you just have to take mirror selfie, like immediately, but can’t find a mirror anywhere. In those cases you can use the selfie globes conveniently positioned near all known “selfie spots” around capital area. Like you did in the first picture.
    (the sudden urge to take random selfies in the middle of street is believed to be result of 5G towers but us natives don’t talk about it cause “they” are always lisstening)

  10. Pictures 1, 2 and 3 show some of the wide variety of ventilation pipes found around Finland. Some vent naturally occurring gases from the earth where the construction of various buildings has tapped into a pocket of said gas. Some are there to ensure that the foundations and subterranean levels of the buildings have the ability to pass air in and out. Some will vent air out, some will be set to suck air in. Regardless of the reason nearly every major construction project undertaken in Finland will have to take these things into account. For the ones you saw away from buildings, well, again they might actually he above some tunnel (metro or otherwise) or other underground installation.

    The last picture, well, ignoring the old toilets, that red/brown structure is for hanging your rugs over/off when you want to beat the dust out of them. A truly excellent example of Finnish engineering and something that I personally think is just one of those awesome little things that make Finland such a good place to live.

  12. These are selfie-balls. They are there so people can take a photograph of themselves in that cool fish-eye style without having to use a filter.

  14. OMG I always wondered the same thing when I was on my Erasmus in Turku 4 years ago.

    Thank you for posting this I finally know the answer. I can die in peace now.

    Edit: I’m pretty sure that I have taken similar photos as yours when I was asking the same question all those years ago. Dunno if I still have it though.

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