Kajaani Castle

About

The Kajaani Castle (Finnish: Kajaanin linna, Swedish: Kajaneborg, Kajaneborgs slott, older spelling Cajanaborg) is a ruined fortress built of granite in Kajaani. The castle was built in the early 17th century on an islet in the Kajaani River, between the Ämmäkoski and Koivukoski rapids in Kainuu, present-day Finland. It was the last medieval-style stone castle constructed in Sweden. The castle was built at a strategically valuable site to protect the region of Kainuu which had been ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Teusina in 1595. Construction was started by king Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. Construction progressed slowly, and king Gustav II Adolf ordered its interruption in 1619. The incomplete castle was first used as a prison. The castle experienced its peak during the tenure of Count Per Brahe the Younger from 1650s to 1670s. The town of Kajaani was founded in 1651 next to the castle, and plans were made to transform the castle into a noble residence. However, in 1681, the fief was abolished during the Great Reduction, and the castle reverted to serving as a simple administrative center for Sweden's northernmost territories. During the Great Northern War, Russian forces besieged...

Construction of the Kajaani castle was started by Clemens Eriksson by order from king Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. The foundation was started in 1604 at a natural nodal point of various passageways, and actual construction was started in 1605. The small islet that was chosen for the foundation proved to be far too small to support a castle, so it was enlarged by piling and embankment. The original walls of the castle rose up directly from the rapids.

In the early 17th century, King Charles IX founded both the city of Oulu and the Kajaani Castle in northern Finland. He wanted to strengthen the position of power of Sweden in the Kainuu region which had been ceded to Sweden at the Treaty of Teusina in 1595. In addition, the castle would protect both existing and new inhabitants of Kainuu from Russian raids. Upon completion, the Kajaani Castle became the northernmost stone castle in Europe. There was discussion in the late 20th century about whether there had previously been any castle or other building at the site before the 17th century. An argument towards the view that there had been previous buildings was that the location was strategically important. There has been no evidence of prior buildings, and so the researcher Heikki Rytkölä from the Museum of Kainuu thinks of the view that there had been prior buildings as too daring.

The castle was constructed on an island on the rapids of the Kajaani River to the east of lake Oulujärvi. In 1606 the king gave an order to admiral Isak Behm that the castle should be surrounded by a wall. A The castle had to be able to defend itself against any possible siege, and because of that king Charles IX appointed the master builder Isak Rasmusson and two journeymen to oversee its construction. Construction progressed slowly as there was a shortage of labour and material at the site. To lessen the shortage of labour the king ordered the peasants living in the area to help with the construction on six work days per year.

In 1610, King Charles IX ordered Isak Behm to be detained because he had refused to obey the king's order to attack and occupy the Russian border outpost Soma. Erich Persson Hare replaced him as the castle's commander, and construction of the castle was slowed down again. After five years of work Rasmusson resigned from his post as the master builder "because of blindness" and returned to Sweden in 1615. In reality, Rasmusson had been almost completely blind for several years, and his journeyman Lars Thomasson had been in charge of the construction since 1613. Because of this, the construction took a long time.

After the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 the area started losing its strategic value, and in 1619, King Gustav II Adolf ordered construction of the Kajaani Castle to be interrupted. At this point, the granite castle was rectangular in shape with a half-rounded turret at both ends. At first, the castle only consisted of a stone wall, two round towers, and wooden buildings in the yard inside the castle. All buildings inside the castle walls were made of wood. After all construction had been stopped, Erich Hare resigned from his post as the castle commander and captain Christopher Wernstedt replaced him as the castle's temporary commander for two years. He was ordered not to do anything other than "repair and maintain the building".

Since Gustaf II Adolf had ordered work on the castle to be interrupted, the castle was left without a commander as such, but on 22 September 1623 Erik Pederson was appointed as the castle commander. The castle had still been left unfinished, and during its first years it functioned as an administrative centrum, prison, and military strongpoint. The castle was seen as a good place to deport prisoners to as it was located in a far-away wasteland. The most famous prisoner was the historian Johannes Messenius (imprisoned 1616 – 1635), a professor at the Uppsala University, sentenced to prison because of his contact with the Jesuits and the Pope, who was forced to live in the poor conditions of the castle from 1616 to 1635, after which he was transferred to Oulu in 1636. During the imprisonment period, Messenius wrote a work of fifteen parts masterpiece concerning the history of Scandinavia called Scondia Illustrata, which was published more than 60 years later, between the years in 1700–1705 in Stockholm. Another famous prisoner at the castle was the famous Swedish author and adventurer Lars Wivallius (imprisoned 1634 – 1641).

The first nine part within the content of the Scondia illustrata form a chronicle called the Chronologia, which describes the history of Scandinavian people starting from times of the Genesis flood narrative until the Gustavus Adolphus reign ergo from 1611 to 1632. The remaining six volumes deal with the history of Finland and the Baltic Vendies and contain additions to the previous volumes.

Erik Pedersson continued to serve as the castle commander up to 20 April 1641 when Per Jakobson Tysk from colonel Bielke's regiment succeeded him as the castle commander. No further construction was done at the Kajaani Castle as Tysk was ordered to serve at the field.

In 1650, Count Per Brahe the Younger received the Freiherrdom of Kajaani as his fiefdom, and in the next year he founded the city of Kajaani next to the castle. Brahe wanted his fiefdom to be administrated from luxurious administrative buildings, so he ordered major additional construction to the castle to convert into a castle for the nobility from 1661 to 1666. Count Per Brahe ordered major additional construction of the castle in the 1650s, which was completed in 1666. During this construction, many wooden structures of the castle were replaced with stone structures to form a fortress. Samuel Lång finished the construction in 1665, raising the walls on the inner yard as high as the outer walls. The Kajaani Castle remained as the main building of the Kajaani Freiherrdom until 1681, when the fiefdom was discontinued during the Great Reduction. The castle once again became a castle for the fogd, whose responsibilities included defence of the area.

The Great Northern War started in 1700, and Kajaani and its nearby villages were burned to the ground in 1712. After this, Lieutenant Colonel Johan von Meurman, the commander of the castle, started strengthening the defence of the castle. The upper floors of the towers were converted to better fit cannons, a three-metre-thick layer of peat was laid on top of the walls, the doors and windows were covered and various hindrances were placed on the coasts. The Kajaani Castle was Sweden's last line of defence in Finland after the Olavinlinna castle had fallen in 1714. In March 1715 Russian troops started arriving outside the Kajaani Castle demanding its immediate surrender. The defence held on, and the Russians stayed away for over half a year. The Russians returned in December 1715, when General Fyodor Chekin arrived with about four thousand men while the defence of the castle only numbered around fifty men. The Russian forces besieged the castle for five weeks until its commander, Johan Henrik Fieandt, finally agreed to surrender the castle on 24 February 1716 because of lack of food, firewood, and ammunition. The Russians had promised to let the defence forces go and allow them to retain their property. These promises were not kept, and the Russian forces took nearly everything with them and deported both the soldiers and the civilians as prisoners to Turku and to Russia. Shortly after this, General Chekin blasted the castle in March 1716.

The Kajaani Castle returned to Sweden at the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, and there were several proposals to rebuild it. The castle held a small garrison until the 1790s, but the walls deteriorated and the stones of the castle were being reused to build houses. When Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809, the castle lost its military significance entirely. The Linnansaari island remained as an important crossing point of the river and the old wooden bridges were kept maintained. In 1845 a new wooden bridge was built over the ruins, and it remained in use for almost a century until a new concrete bridge was built. In order to build the foundation for the wooden bridge the middle part of the ruins was lowered and some stones were taken from the area to build the foundation.

The first repair work of the ruins of the castle started in 1890 with a grant from the Senate of Finland. In addition, the board of construction, which served as the actual operator of the work, used its own money for the restoration. At the time, the castle had lain in ruins for almost two centuries, and its bottom and rooms were covered in several metres of soil and rock. In addition, the walls were in such a bad shape that there was fear they would fall down. The plans for the restoration were made by the famous restoration architect Johan Jacob Ahrenberg. The repairs of the castle from 1890 to 1892 were conducted badly: places where rock had fallen down were patched with bricks and the ruins were lowered. These brick patches remained in place until the ruins were repaired again from 1910 to 1911.

The old wooden bridge became too narrow and weak for the growing car traffic in the early 20th century. In summer 1936, construction of a new bridge from steel-reinforced concrete started. The old objects found during the excavation for the foundation of the bridge gave rise to a demand for restoring the ruins. The Parliament of Finland approved a grant for excavation and restoration work which started in July 1937. A layer of several metres of soil and rock was removed from the castle and its walls were repaired and raised. The brick patches left in place from the previous attempt at restoration were replaced with granite stones. About 1,800 old objects were recovered during the repairs. By initiative of the City of Kajaani, a new restoration project took place from 2001 to 2008. During the project, the Finnish Heritage Agency repaired the walls and researched its construction history, and the city built a new pedestrian bridge to the island. New road signs were made to improve the accessibility and tourism, and a restoration report and website were made. In 2014 the Kajaani Castle went under the care of the nature services of the Metsähallitus agency of forestry along with 28 other valuable cultural heritage sites.

Construction of the Kajaani castle was started by Clemens Eriksson by order from king Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. The foundation was started in 1604 at a natural nodal point of various passageways, and actual construction was started in 1605. The small islet that was chosen for the foundation proved to be far too small to support a castle, so it was enlarged by piling and embankment. The original walls of the castle rose up directly from the rapids.

In the early 17th century, King Charles IX founded both the city of Oulu and the Kajaani Castle in northern Finland. He wanted to strengthen the position of power of Sweden in the Kainuu region which had been ceded to Sweden at the Treaty of Teusina in 1595. In addition, the castle would protect both existing and new inhabitants of Kainuu from Russian raids. Upon completion, the Kajaani Castle became the northernmost stone castle in Europe. There was discussion in the late 20th century about whether there had previously been any castle or other building at the site before the 17th century. An argument towards the view that there had been previous buildings was that the location was strategically important. There has been no evidence of prior buildings, and so the researcher Heikki Rytkölä from the Museum of Kainuu thinks of the view that there had been prior buildings as too daring.

The castle was constructed on an island on the rapids of the Kajaani River to the east of lake Oulujärvi. In 1606 the king gave an order to admiral Isak Behm that the castle should be surrounded by a wall. A The castle had to be able to defend itself against any possible siege, and because of that king Charles IX appointed the master builder Isak Rasmusson and two journeymen to oversee its construction. Construction progressed slowly as there was a shortage of labour and material at the site. To lessen the shortage of labour the king ordered the peasants living in the area to help with the construction on six work days per year.

In 1610, King Charles IX ordered Isak Behm to be detained because he had refused to obey the king's order to attack and occupy the Russian border outpost Soma. Erich Persson Hare replaced him as the castle's commander, and construction of the castle was slowed down again. After five years of work Rasmusson resigned from his post as the master builder "because of blindness" and returned to Sweden in 1615. In reality, Rasmusson had been almost completely blind for several years, and his journeyman Lars Thomasson had been in charge of the construction since 1613. Because of this, the construction took a long time.

After the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 the area started losing its strategic value, and in 1619, King Gustav II Adolf ordered construction of the Kajaani Castle to be interrupted. At this point, the granite castle was rectangular in shape with a half-rounded turret at both ends. At first, the castle only consisted of a stone wall, two round towers, and wooden buildings in the yard inside the castle. All buildings inside the castle walls were made of wood. After all construction had been stopped, Erich Hare resigned from his post as the castle commander and captain Christopher Wernstedt replaced him as the castle's temporary commander for two years. He was ordered not to do anything other than "repair and maintain the building".

Since Gustaf II Adolf had ordered work on the castle to be interrupted, the castle was left without a commander as such, but on 22 September 1623 Erik Pederson was appointed as the castle commander. The castle had still been left unfinished, and during its first years it functioned as an administrative centrum, prison, and military strongpoint. The castle was seen as a good place to deport prisoners to as it was located in a far-away wasteland. The most famous prisoner was the historian Johannes Messenius (imprisoned 1616 – 1635), a professor at the Uppsala University, sentenced to prison because of his contact with the Jesuits and the Pope, who was forced to live in the poor conditions of the castle from 1616 to 1635, after which he was transferred to Oulu in 1636. During the imprisonment period, Messenius wrote a work of fifteen parts masterpiece concerning the history of Scandinavia called Scondia Illustrata, which was published more than 60 years later, between the years in 1700–1705 in Stockholm. Another famous prisoner at the castle was the famous Swedish author and adventurer Lars Wivallius (imprisoned 1634 – 1641).