Turku Castle

I'll share with you some photos of the Turku Castle that we visited last summer. It is huge - endless narrow stone staircases and climbing made me exhausted. The castle is a more than 700 year old historical monument and has stood guard over the river Aura estuary since the 1280’s. Its granite stone walls hold within them the history of Finland & Sweden.

In 1556, King Gustav Vasa named his son Johan Duke of Finland. The era of Johan marked a new phase in the construction of the castle. In the 17th century, the Governor General of Finland Per Brahe held court in the bailey. Gradually the administrative centre moved out of the castle, and gave way to a prison. There were almost 20 prisoners in the same small cell at times. The poor conditions in the prison caused illnesses, diarrhea and fever. Mortality peaked in 1863, when Turku was plagued by a cholera epidemic that killed 32 people in two weeks.

 

In the 1941 bombings the castle was left in ruins. After the end of the war restaurations began and took decenniums. Nowadays the periods of construction can be seen in labyrinthine passages, walled up doors and windows and in mysterious staircases. It was a grey day during our visit, no blue on the sky whatsoever.

 

The builder of the Sture Church was the Swedish regent Sten Sture in the 1480s.

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