Hame Castle

Hame castle is traditionally dated to the thirteenth century, though nothing found there is firmly older than the 1320s, and it stands on the shore of Lake Vanajavesi as one of the strongholds through which Sweden held this territory, built in grey stone and then heavily rebuilt in red brick, which gives it a colour unusual among Finnish castles. It was a fortress, then an administrative centre, then from the nineteenth century a prison, and the prison buildings around it are part of the site. Restoration in the twentieth century opened it as a museum, with vaulted halls, a chapel, bare brick chambers and exhibitions on the castle's history. The prison museum next door covers the other part of the story, and the lakeside park runs along the shore.

History

The age of Häme Castle is disputed: tradition links it to Birger Jarl's crusade of the mid-13th century, but no archaeological find from it can be firmly dated before the 1320s, and an early 14th-century fort at Hakoinen, about 20 km away, may be the only castle named in Häme in a royal document of 1308. The castle was built as a keep with five turrets inside curtain walls and a moat, its lower courses of granite and its upper ones of red brick, on what was then an island in Lake Vanajavesi. It was partly restored in the early 1600s, and in 1639 the settlement beside it received town rights as Hämeenlinna; neglected by Sweden through the 17th and 18th centuries, it became a prison after Finland passed to Russia, and served as one until 1953, when a long restoration began, opening as a museum in 1979 (Wikipedia, Häme Castle).

Highlights

• Red brick medieval walls - the rebuilt fortress on the lake shore.
• Vaulted halls and chambers - the restored interiors.
• The prison buildings - the nineteenth-century use of the site.
• The lakeside park - the shore walk beside the castle.

When to go

Year round. Two hours. Closed on some Mondays and over midwinter. Combine with Aulanko park on the same trip.

Good to know

Restoration was extensive and much of what is seen is twentieth-century work. Interiors are bare. The prison museum has separate opening hours. It is small compared with castles elsewhere in Europe.

Nearby

Aulanko is north; Helsinki lies south.

Key facts