Olavinlinna (), also known as St. Olaf's Castle, is a 15th-century three-tower castle located in

Savonlinna Savonlinna (, , ; ) is a town in Finland, located in the eastern interior of the country. It lies in the Finnish Lakeland, the South Savo region. The population of Savonlinna is approximately , while the Savonlinna sub-region, sub-region has a pop ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. It is built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait that connects the lakes

Haukivesi Haukivesi is a lake in southeastern Finland and a part of the Saimaa lake system. Haukivesi is the central basin of the system, collecting 80% of the water that eventually flows into Lake Ladoga through River Vuoksi. Its area is (List of lakes in ...

and Pihlajavesi. It is the northernmost

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

stone fortress still standing. The castle forms a spectacular stage for the

Savonlinna Opera Festival Savonlinna Opera Festival () is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle), built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery. Origin The birth ...

, which was held for the first time in the summer of 1912.

History

The fortress was founded by Erik Axelsson Tott in 1475 under the name ''Sankt Olofsborg'' in an effort to profit from the political turmoil following Ivan III's conquest of the

Novgorod Republic The Novgorod Republic () was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of Novgorod. The ...

. It was sited in Savonia so as to lay claim to the Russian side of the border established by the

Treaty of Nöteborg The Treaty of Nöteborg, also known as the Treaty of Orehovsk (; ; ), is a conventional name for the peace treaty signed at Shlisselburg Fortress, Oreshek (; ) on 12 August 1323. It was the first agreement between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic ...

. One of Tott's letters from 1477 includes a passing mention of foreign builders invited to Olofsborg, probably from Reval, where the city fortifications were being extended. It was the first Swedish castle provided with a set of thickset circular towers that could withstand

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

fire. It is not by accident that a network of lakes and waterways forms the setting for the castle, for these would seriously impede a prospective Russian offensive. The three-towered

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

was completed in 1485, and the construction of the outer curtain walls with two towers was initiated immediately. They were completed in 1495. The castle is roughly a truncated rhomboid with keep on the western side of the island and the curtain walls and

outer bailey An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bui ...

to east. One of the towers of the keep, St. Erik's Tower, has a bad foundation and has since collapsed. One of the towers of Bailey, the Thick Tower, exploded in 1791. A

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

, the Thick Bastion, has been built on its place. The castle was converted into a Vaubanesque

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

in the late 18th century with bastions.

Warfare

Olofsborg withstood several sieges by the Russians during the First and Second Russian-Swedish wars. A brisk trade developed under the umbrella of the castle towards the end of the 16th century, giving birth to the town of

, which was chartered in 1639. While the castle was never captured by force, its garrison agreed to terms of surrender twice; first to invading Russians on 28 July 1714 and the second time on 8 August 1743, with the latter conflict's peace treaty in form of the

Treaty of Åbo The Treaty of Åbo, or the Treaty of Turku, was a peace treaty signed between the Russian Empire and Sweden in Åbo (Turku) on in the end of the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743. History By the end of the war, the Imperial Russian Army had ...

leading to the castle and the entire region being seceded to Empress Elizabeth of Russia. During the Russian era

Alexander Suvorov Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy () was a Russian general and military theorist in the service of the Russian Empire. Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian ...

personally inspected rearmament of the fortress. Several devastating fires destroyed much of the castle's decor in the 19th century, all of its original furnishings were destroyed.

Border conflicts

After the conclusion of the Russo-Swedish War 1495-1497, Sten Sture returned to Sweden and discovered that a large revolt had begun against him, resulting in the Battle of Rotebro where he was deposed in favor of King Hans of Denmark. In August of 1499, the governor of

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

, Eric Bielke, received alarming reports about battles against Russian forces who believed Nyslott was rightfully Russian and were attempting to move the border posts to include the town within Russian territory. Of the 1,000 Russians that took part in the fighting, only about 200 are said to have been equipped with firearms; the others fought with axes and sabers. In the following battles, the Russians suffered heavy casualties and were repulsed. While further details on the battles are not known, they seem to have been limited to the area around Nyslott. On the 14th of September 1504, Eric Bielke was able to sign a truce lasting 20 years with the Russians. The next major war between Sweden and Russia would not come until 1554. Despite this, there was no guaranteed peace on the border between them, and among other things a letter from 1509 tells that "the enemies of God and Christendom, the intransigent Russians" have ravaged Finland.

Tourism

The castle hosts several small exhibitions. These include the Castle Museum which displays artifacts found in the castle or related to it, and the Orthodox Museum which displays icons and other religious artifacts both from Finland and Russia. Olavinlinna is the initial model for Kropow Castle in the

bande dessinée (singular ; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition ...

King Ottokar's Sceptre ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' () is the eighth volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper for its children's supplement , it was serialised weekly fr ...

'', an album in the series of Adventures of Tintin created by

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé ( ; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of T ...

.Severi Nygård: Tintti Suomessa. ''Helsingin Sanomat'', Kuukausiliite, October 2008.

Gallery

References

External links

St. Olaf's Castle
at the Finnis
National Board of Antiquities

Savonlinna Opera Festival
– Official website
Medieval castles in Finland

The Association of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea
{{Authority control Castles in Finland Savonlinna Buildings and structures in South Savo Museums in South Savo History museums in Finland Religious museums in Finland History of South Savo Water castles Churches dedicated to Saint Olav in Finland