Parliament of Åland (Lagting)

The Parliament of Åland (Lagting) building stands near the eastern harbour in the center of Mariehamn. The building is from the 1930s — a solid, functionalist structure appropriate for its time — and houses the 30-seat assembly that governs the islands' domestic affairs. The parliament building can be visited on guided tours; check with the Mariehamn tourist office for current arrangements.

The parliament building is less impressive architecturally than its constitutional significance would suggest, but the fact of its existence — a functioning parliament governing 30,000 people under an international treaty that dates to 1921 — is remarkable and worth understanding. The visit is most interesting in combination with the Åland Museum.

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The Åland parliament, established in 1922, is one of the oldest autonomous regional parliaments in Europe. Its thirty members govern education, health, local taxation, radio and television, and transport — powers that in most European countries rest entirely with the national government. The parliament's existence is protected by international treaty and can theoretically only be removed by a unanimous decision of the Finnish parliament plus a two-thirds majority of the Åland parliament itself. In practice, no one has tried.