Kajaani Castle

From construction to ruin . Construction of the Kajaani castle was started by Clemens Eriksson by order from king Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. 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. 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. 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 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, 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 old wooden bridge became too narrow and weak for the growing car traffic in the early 20th century. 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. == Architecture ==

The castle was built from natural rock mined and collected from nearby areas. The rocks in the walls vary in appearance, as several types of rock were seen as suitable for building. To acquire lime mortar used for the walls, limestone was probably mined from the Melalahti area in Paltamo. The outer walls of castles were mostly covered in a thin layer of lime mortar, and traces of white limestone have been preserved in the Kajaani Castle. The embrasures for the windows were red. In the first stage of construction completed in 1619 the castle had two round artillery towers and a one-story-high outer wall between them. In addition, the castle had two rectangular batteries and a gate tower at the northern gate. The outer wall was about 39 metres long, 9.6 metres high and 3.6 metres thick. There were bridges to the island from the mainland both in the north and from the south. The northern bridge was 50 metres long and the southern bridge was 91 metres long. The wooden living facilities were later replaced with stone houses. As the plans for them included arched roofs, four walls were made for each house even though they were attached to the outer wall. The stone houses were designed as double houses: in the middle of each house was a porch with entrances to both houses inside the building. The chancellery building was two stories high, and its middle floor was made of wood. The upper stories could be reached by staircases on the outside of the building. The stone walls of the rooms were covered in white limestone. The house of the castle commander had a brick floor while the other rooms probably had a wooden floor. There were four rooms, a gunpowder storage room, a living room, a porch and a kitchen with a cellar underneath it attached to the northern outer wall. From 1669 onwards there was a so-called great hall on the second story of the eastern tower. == Archaeology ==

Ior Bock wrote in his story collection Bockin perheen saaga that there had been another castle at the site before the Kajaani Castle was built, with a treasure dating back to the Crusades hidden in the well. In June 2006, the archeologist Kari Uotila conducted digging at the site and found an electric cable at the depth of 40 centimetres, which probably was the object visible in the radar. The digging found no sign of the well mentioned in Bock's work. In addition, the soil at the place where the sign of a metal object was noticed was untouched so it was impossible that anything would have been hidden there. In December 2006 researchers from the Oulu University conducted further ground radar scanning but did not find any sign of a large metal object any more. == In literature ==

's illustration to the novel Fältskärns berättelser from 1884. Zachris Topelius's historical novel Fältskärns berättelser touches on the subject of the Kajaani Castle and its history at two points. The siege of the Kajaani Castle and the desperate situation of the women and children seeking refuge there was described by Eino Leino in his first printed poem Kajaanin linna (Hämeen Sanomat 26 September 1890). The Kajaani Castle played an important part in the journalist-writer Jussi Kukkonen's historical novels. The poem collection Kajaneborg 1636 written by the Finland-Swedish poet Lars Huldén in 2010 describes the life and thoughts of the castle's famous prisoners, the historian Johannes Messenius and the poet-adventurer Lars Wivallius during their long and heavy years in prison in the 17th century. Juha Seppälä has also described Messenius's fate in prison in his play Kajaanin linnan vanki which premiered at the Kajaani City Theatre in 2001. == Stamps ==

On 7 July 1951 a brown stamp worth 20 markka was published in Finland to commemorate the 300th anniverasy of the city of Kajaani. The stamp shows the ruins of the Kajaani Castle as well as the Koivukoski power plant and the towers of the Kajaani Church designed by Johan Jacob Ahrenberg (1896) and the Kajaani City Hall designed by Carl Ludvig Engel (1831). == See also ==