Location: Hämeenlinna Map
Constructed: 13th century
Official site
Häme Castle is one of Finland's medieval kingdom castles. Today, the
castle is a museum located in the town of Hämeenlinna on the shores
of Vanajavesi, about 12 meters above the current water level. The
exact date of construction of the castle is unclear, but it was
still built in the late 13th century. The first mention of it dates
back to 1308. In the first phase, the castle consisted of a
gray-stone camp castle and a perimeter wall. Later in the 14th and
15th centuries, it was raised in Finland in the Middle Ages with
bricks that were rarely used in the Middle Ages.
Häme Castle
lost its status as an administrative center in 1634, and in the late
17th century it fell into disrepair when Swedish foreign policy
began to focus south of the Baltic Sea. After the Great Wrath, it
was made the main depot, and in the 1770s it was converted into a
fortress under the bastion system. The Russian Empire took over the
castle in 1808 without a fight and soon turned it into a prison.
Restoration of the castle did not begin until the 1950s, and
prisoners were removed from the main castle in 1953 and the
perimeter wall in 1972. Renovation work on the main castle was
completed in 1979, when it was also opened to the public. The
perimeter walls were repaired in 1988.
History
Construction
The exact date of the
establishment of Häme Castle is unclear, and in the literature the
date of its construction has varied between 1229 and 1372. In the
earliest research literature, the construction of the castle was
associated with the Earl of Birger. According to the National Board
of Antiquities, the decision to build the castle came after Birger's
“crusade” to Häme, and construction work began in the late 13th
century at the latest. In any case, the castle is first mentioned in
the 1308 documents.
Different assessments have also been made
of the early stages of the castle's construction. According to the
long-held notion, the earliest form of the castle comprised a
gray-stone camp waterfall and a surrounding perimeter wall with
three corner towers. According to this timing, the brick-building
phase would have lasted from the mid-14th century to the mid-15th
century. However, in 2001, historian Knut Drake suggested that the
construction of the gray stone fortress did not begin until 1372,
and before that only log equipment would have been available. Drake
drew his conclusions about the new, younger timing of the Swedish
castle Tre Kronor. According to Drake, the brick castle phase would
not have begun until 1472.
The brick castle phase is
significant because brick was a relatively rare building material in
medieval Finland. At this stage of construction, the greystone
structure was raised with brick walls. The brick allowed for more
advanced vaulting than barrel vaults and Gothic decorative forms.
The brick began to dominate the entire castle courtyard, as the
older gray stone surfaces were replaced with brick. At the same
time, the castle was divided into two parts like Turku Castle. The
ground floor was used by all, and the second floor was reserved for
the commander and his court.
As a defense and garrison castle
The castle was built as a border castle, but its significance as a
border castle disappeared as early as 1323, when the peace of
Pähkinäsaari moved the Swedish border further away from the castle.
The building continued to be a major defensive base, as it was
located at the crossroads of nationally important roads.
Häme
Castle was allowed to be quite peaceful in the 14th and 15th
centuries, although the castles of Turku and Vyborg, for example,
were besieged when power changed in the country. After the Novgorod
invasion of 1311, the next notable threat in the late 15th century
was the Principality of Moscow by Ivan III, preparing for war. The
castle was in concrete danger when, after a failed bang in Vyborg in
1495, the Russians invaded Häme.
At the beginning of the 16th
century, Häme Castle was a place of similar courting as the castles
of Turku and Vyborg. Åke Yrjänänpoika Totti became the commander of
Häme Castle in 1508, and at that time he became the most influential
commander of Finland. He received the Swedish regent Svante
Niilonpoja at the castle. Åke Yrjänänpoika was still living in Häme
Castle in 1520, when Sten Sture's younger widow Kristina
Gyllenstierna surrendered to the siege forces of King Christian II
of Denmark on the condition of having Häme Castle and
Kokemäenkartano as widows' apartments. Kristian's troops then
arrived at the castle and executed Åke Göran's son. However, as
early as 1522, Häme Castle passed to Admiral Søren Norby as part of
a large county. However, the castle returned to Sweden without a
fight, when the Danes had to surrender after the Swedes besieged in
1523 both Turku Castle and Kuusisto Episcopal Castle.
During
the period of Gustav Vaasa, the nature of the castle changed, and it
became the center of the account county and all the surplus belonged
to the crown. Gustav Vaasa sent two round artillery towers, or
rondelles, to the castle built by Henrik von Cöllen in 1559. Some
repairs were also made to the main castle to make it presentable. By
the end of the 16th century, however, the castle had begun to decay;
in 1587 the scribe noted that it had not been inhabited for three
years. Most of the south tower collapsed in an explosion in 1599. It
was probably repaired soon, and Erik Hare, appointed chief of the
castle in 1606, clearly restored the castle's defensive readiness
within six years. Gustav II Adolf visited the restored castle in
1614. Since then, the great hall of the castle has been called the
“royal hall”.
When the governor's office was founded in 1634,
Häme Castle lost its position as an administrative center. A
significant change took place around the castle in 1639, when its
northern settlement gained city rights founded by Peter Brahe as a
city called Hämeenlinna.
During the 17th century, Swedish foreign policy
shifted south of the Baltic Sea, and the castle drifted into
disrepair. The condition was exacerbated by a fire in 1659. With the
outbreak of the Great Northern War in 1700, the castle had been
badly ruined. Attempts were made to improve its defensive condition,
but in 1713 its defenses were found to be weak. Troops left the
castle before the enemies came to Pälkäne, and the castle was in
Russian possession from 1713 to 1721. The Russians slightly improved
the defensive condition of the castle.
After the Great Wrath,
Häme Castle was turned into the main depot of the Finnish army, ie
place d’armes. In this connection, the main castle was turned into a
grain depot and a new crown bakery was built for the military. The
appearance of the main castle was modified and it got its current
appearance. The wing sections between the towers were raised,
leaving the south and east towers under the roof structures. In the
War of the Hats in 1741–1743, the Russians again occupied the castle
without a battle. New repairs did not begin until the 1770s. By
order of King Gustav III, the settlement of the city of Hämeenlinna
was moved to its current location and the renovation of the castle
began. The castle began to be developed as a fortress, and ramparts
and moats were built around it according to the bastion system. In
addition, a main guard, a western perimeter wall building with
various workshops were built in the area, and the crew's sleeping
and kitchen areas were located in the north perimeter wall building.
From prison to museum
The castle has apparently served as a
prison from the beginning. Häme Castle surrendered during the
Finnish War, March 6, 1808, without a battle. The castle was then
subjugated to the Russian military regime. Häme Castle had also been
used as a prison for a long time, but in the early days of Russian
rule it was turned into a crown prison with almost 300 prisoners
housed in the main castle. At the same time, the castle was still
used as a granary. The castle was completely converted into a prison
in 1837 according to the drawings of Carl Ludvig Engel. Major
changes were also made to the vicinity of the castle: an extension
facility was built on the west side in 1839 according to the plans
of Anders Fredrik Granstedt and in 1871 according to the plans of
Ludvig Isak Lindqvist. In 1881, Finland's only women's penitentiary
was placed in Häme Castle. The castle operated as a women's prison
until 1953 (main castle) and 1972 (perimeter wall buildings). The
castle had a rather unfortunate reputation among female prisoners:
back in 1944, every female prisoner who had remained silent until
then began to speak at interrogation everything he knew - if the
price of silence would be to leave Häme Castle. Similarly, Ida
Aalle-Teljo, who was in Häme Castle for political reasons in
1919–1922, tells quite scary things about the prison in her memoirs.
The restoration of Häme Castle was proposed several times, but
it was not until 1953 that the prisoners were removed from the main
castle to begin investigations. The restoration of the main castle
was difficult because it had been altered several times and used for
a long time. The restoration plan was drawn up by Professor Nils
Erik Wickberg. The restoration of the main castle was completed in
1979, during which time some of the premises were reconstructed. The
forecourt and its surroundings were restored after the main castle
and were sought to be brought back to the pre-1870s state. Their
restoration was completed in 1988. The main castle was opened to the
public on April 4, 1979 and the perimeter walls in 1988.
Current state
Today, the castle serves as a museum under the
National Board of Antiquities, and its premises are rented out for
various occasions. The Prison Museum and the Militaria Special
Museum of Military History are also located in the immediate
vicinity of the castle.
The castle became a topic of
conversation in Hämeenlinna again in the autumn of 2007, when an
article about the weak current condition of the castle was published
in Hämeen Sanomat. The worst condition is the castle ramparts, which
are in danger of collapsing. In addition, the lower part of the
cannon tower is banned because rainwater enters the tower structures
and stones falling from the walls make the place dangerous. The
reason for the deteriorating condition is the lack of money
available for repairs and maintenance. In December 2007, the
National Board of Antiquities received 1.5 million euros from the
state for repairs. Most of the money will be used for the repairs of
Tamminiemi and Olavinlinna, but the money is also coming to Häme
Castle.
Renovations
The moat has been renovated for
several summers in the 2010s. The previous renovation was done in
the 1980s, when bug fixes were made. Part of the grave has not been
restored before, and it is hoped to find information about the old
support structures of the moat, including the bundles of twigs that
supported the walls.
Linnanniemi museum area
Häme Castle, together
with the Museum Militaria and the Prison Museum, forms the
Linnanniemi museum area, which has its own parking area and signage.
The visitor also has the opportunity to purchase a joint ticket to
all three museums.