Visiting A Real Castle; Olavinlinna

Sunday morning was all blue skies and I was all ready to go visit a real castle. In Finnish "linna" means castle. Olavinlinna is the Castle of St. Olaf built by a Danish knight by the name of Erik Axelsson Tott in 1475.

 The castle is open to tourists all year long, and in the summertime hosts the world famous Savonlinna Opera Festival in it's courtyard.

 Olavinlinna was built on an island that was nearly impossible to reach, because there is water surrounding each side of it and very strong currents, so people couldn't reach it in times of war. The thing I find most amazing is how people were even able to get there in the first place if it was so hard with the currents, and how on earth did they manage to build such a magnificant fortress?

 You have to cross over a bridge to get to the main entrance of the castle and then under the gate and through the about 10ft thick stone walls.

 This is the first courtyard you see when you enter. The tree shown has been here since the castle was built, or close to it, so it has witnessed a lot of change over the years.
The castle has been a part of Sweden, then Russia, and back to Swedish rule again. There has also been changes in the amounts of towers, resulting in only three now.

 Here is another part of the castle near the entrance. In the corner there was at one time a kitchen, but it has since been long gone.

 This is a statue of the patron St. Olaf, and it was added at a later date in 1911 or maybe even more recent. So it's not something that Tott would have seen when he first built the castle 500 years ago.

 Here is the same room that has the statue in it. As you can see there are different chambers leading off and very thick windows too. The stones were all put into place using motar and I am just so captivated by them. I really do love stonework, it's what holds together and captures history in a weathering form.

 Here is one of the passageways leading down into another room.

 After going up a winding spiral staircase, we reached the chapel. There are twelve crosses on the walls which are from the middle ages. Over the years the church has gone from being used for Catholism, Lutheran, and Orthodox, with the changing of hands, and so today any religion can have a meeting in there. Weddings can also take place here in the small chapel. 

 This window in the wall gave a view of the three alters in the front of the chapel, so that if there was an ill person or a criminal, they could still watch the service from behind the wall.

 One of the towers you can see from walking around one of the courtyards up higher.

 If the castle was ever under attack, there would be archers positioned here and probably some canons too. No origional canons were still left, because all of the origional pieces were taken by the Russians when they retreated after giving up the castle in a treaty.

 Looking back down at the same area we first entered.

 This is again in that same room where the statue is of St. Olaf, but this is up much higher. There were many pathways so that soldiers could get around quickly to defend their fortress from enemies.

 One of many spiral staircases that went up in the towers and around the castle. The steps were purposely made uneven so that if an intruder somehow got inside, they would be startled by the differences and slowed down. Also, there were areas built specifically so that only left-handed soldiers could fight there. Assuming that most outsiders would be right-handed, this was an excellent defence. It's incredible that people thought up everything for this castle to create such a well protected, fortified area.

 There were about 200 people living in the castle at once with about six rooms total. The rooms in the towers were circular to fit the tower shape. Why were the towers circles and not squares? If they had been squares, and enemy would have been able to aim for the corners with their cannons and the stone walls may not be standing today. By being circular, the damage of being hit is reduced and the likelyhood of being hit is reduced too.

 The women had the highest room and their own private bathroom too.

 I don't think I would have been able to use the watercloset with a more than 100ft drop below. That's quite a fall.

 The different architecture in the different rooms. Again, I just can't get over how amazing the stonework looks. And the wooden ceiling is a nice, more recent addition.

 Here is the main dining hall. You can still see original hooks on the ceiling and walls. Behind where I'm standing to take this picture, there is also a little almost oven like space in the wall, which would have been used as a heater in the wintertime. Although, little could really be done about the cold of wintertime.

 You can still see some of the original building tools and techniques used for crafting the stone walls.

 This is the larger courtyard which houses the opera festival come summer. There are stands and everything is transformed so it looks completely different during that part of the year.

 Behind me is where the stage is for the opera performers and one of the towers too.

 Here is another angle of the courtyard. It is a really big space and nice too. It would be an interesting expirence to live in a castle. I think it would have been kind of cool to see how it would have been like.

 Usually the area back under arches is closed off in the summer because this is where the storage is for the opera, but not to worry now since it's wintertime.

 This area was very important, because it's where the inhabitants of the castle were able to go and get their water from without having to leave the castle walls. It's a very beautiful and serene space to be in.

 Olavinlinna museo was an amazing place to visit and there was so much to see and do there.

 Here is another view of the space where they would get their water.

 There were different arched cellars that would have been used for storing food, etc. In the castle they are mainly fish from the nearby waters, meat, some vegetables, bread, and porridge. And of course they had their own brewery, with each person consuming about thirteen liters of beer each day.
Now adays there are just different displays, and in this room there were different cannonballs and coins from all the years the castle was in use.

 Here are some more cannonballs, but these ones look to have actually been used in combat. The cannonballs were made from iron and some of them were the size of boulders; I have no idea how they could have been fired off, but they were.

 The foundation of the castle was layed on the existing stone of the island. Behind these walls the treasures were hidden and stored.

 Here is a picture of Tott's family crest, although it has broken apart over the years. The fact that it is carved into the rock is amazing. It must have taken a long, long time, and it looks so smooth and neat too.

 Here's a bigger, intact family crest for Axel Tott. This room housed all sorts of different postcards and images of the castle from over the years.

 And so we are outside of the maginifcant Olavinlinna, the first castle I have ever visited, and hopefully not the last one either.

And here is a stature to honor Tott, the great Danish knight who built such an everlasting wonder.