Hietsu redirects here. Hietsu is also an area on the island of Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Hietaniemi beach is a popular sand beach in central Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

. It is located in the Töölö

Töölö

Töölö is the collective name for the neighbourhoods Etu-Töölö and Taka-Töölö in Helsinki, Finland. The neighbourhoods are located next to the city centre, occupying the western side of the Helsinki Peninsula....

 district, next to the Hietaniemi Cemetery

Hietaniemi cemetery

The Hietaniemi cemetery is located in the Töölö district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland...

 and is the most popular beach in central Helsinki.

History

In the beginning of the 20th century the remote area of Hietaniemi was being used as a landfill

Landfill

A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

 and was converted into an area for sand storage. Sand was brought in by barges from the bottom of the sea for a number of years. The sand was never really used, however, but was just left there to spread. In 1929, the locals adopted the area as a sand beach.

Being close to the city centre, the beach is nowadays a popular summer destination for locals and tourists. It is also a popular place for playing beach volleyball

Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....

, and since 1995 the Hietsu Beach Volley tournament has taken place there.

External links

• Hietsu.fi