Kankainen Manor (Finnish: ''Kankaisten kartano'', Swedish: ''Kankas gård'') is a

late medieval The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

manor in

Masku Masku () is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. The municipality, which is located about just north of Turku, has a population of () and covers an area of of w ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, located along a small river about one kilometre south of Masku town centre. Kankainen Manor is considered to be the oldest surviving residential building in Finland, as its oldest parts may be from the end of the 15th century. In 2009, the Finnish Heritage Agency defined it as one of Finland's nationally significant built cultural environments.

History

The first known historical record of the village of Kankainen is from 1346, and the manor estate is thought to have been founded in the 1410s by Klaus Lydekesson Diekn, then the bailiff of

Turku Castle Turku Castle ( fi, Turun linna, sv, Åbo slott) is a medieval building in the city of Turku in Finland. Together with Turku Cathedral, the castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use and the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. ...

. The Horn family owned the estate for two and a half centuries from 1437 until 1695 and the manor house itself was built by

Henrik Klasson Horn Henrikki Laavunpoika of Kankainen, or Henrik Klasson Horn (c. 1512–1595), was a Swedish military officer and Governor-General of Finland. He was an ancestor of the noble Swedish family, Horn af Kanckas. Biography He was the son of Kl ...

around 1550, although the basement and foundations of the building are older and likely date from the late 15th century. During the Horns' ownership, the manor was visited by king Gustav I in 1556 and king Gustavus Adolphus in 1616. During the 17th century reductions, a large portion of the manor's land was returned to the Crown, and in 1695, Evert Horn the Younger handed the estate over to major general Johan Ribbing to settle a debt. The manor house was damaged during the

Greater Wrath The Great Wrath (, in contemporary sources: , 'Era of Russian domination/supremacy'; ) was a period of Finnish history dominated by the Russian invasion and subsequent military occupation of Finland, then part of the Swedish Empire, from 1714 ...

and by the 1750s, its condition had deteriorated so much that trees and vines were reported to be growing inside the walls. Nils Hasselbom, a professor at the

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

, purchased the manor in 1756 and had the building renovated in 1762–1763 according to plans made by

Augustin Ehrensvärd Field Marshal count Augustin Ehrensvärd (25 September 1710 – 4 October 1772) was a Swedish military officer, military architect, artist, creator of the Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) fortress, Svartholm fortress and the Swedish archipelago fleet. H ...

. During these renovations, the ruined original third floor was removed and the building's windows were realigned for symmetry. A false second door was also added for symmetry with the off-centre main entrance. The manor was auctioned to colonel Berndt Aminoff in 1846. Upon his death, the manor passed onto his son Carl Fredrik Aminoff, who died childless during the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

in 1918 and bequeathed the manor to relative Claes Aminoff, who had the building renovated and the third floor rebuilt in 1935, restoring the original cubic form of the building. In 1992, Claes Aminoff's son Fredrik Aminoff had to sell the estate to the Åbo Akademi University Endowment due to financial problems. The foundation maintained the manor house as a museum available by appointment, and the estate's 19th century cowhouse was refurbished as a rentable space for functions and events. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities listed the manor building and grounds as a built cultural heritage site of national significance in 2009. The manor was sold to a private company Tractatus Properties Oy in 2018 to be used as an arts and sciences centre.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 60, 33, 28, N, 22, 05, 46, E, region:FI_type:landmark, display=title 15th-century establishments in Finland Historic house museums in Finland Manor houses in Finland 1410s establishments in Europe Medieval Finnish architecture Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century