The first Finnish castle to be built for use in the era of firearms was Olavinlinna (Olofsborg in Swedish) in the wilderness of northern Karelia. The castle lies on an island in a system of lakes and inland waterways, and building work started in 1475 under the Swedes, mainly as a demarcation of the frontier.
Novgorod had been taken by the Muscovites led by Grand Duke Ivan III and after he openly declared that he intended to invade Finland next, the Swedes wanted to demonstrate where the border lay in the uninhabited wilderness according to the peace treaty of 1323.
Olavinlinna Castle, Finland
The building process was dramatic, as the Russians felt that the castle was being built on the wrong side of the border and therefore did everything in their power to disrupt the work. The barges which brought sand, stone and lime to the building site were, for instance, attacked on numerous occasions. Research in our own time has proved the Russians right, as the castle was built about five kilometers into what was then Russian territory.
The castle, with its round projecting towers, clearly shows that it was built after firearms came into use. At the end of the 15th century, there was no master builder in Finland who was equal to such a task, and the governor, Erik Axelsson Tott, says in a letter dated 1477 that he had “16 good foreign master bricklayers” on the castle island. The building technique used would indicate that they came from Reval (Tallinn), where the town wall was extended in the same style at about the same period.
Olavinlinna was not built in vain. Ivan III put his threat into practice and the castle was besieged in both 1495 and 1496, but withstood the siege both times. More sieges followed during King Gustavus Vasa’s Russian campaign in 1555-1557, when the castle had a garrison of about 200 men.
Author: Carl Jacob Gardberg, Photo: Finnish Tourist Board