Hämeen Linna (Medieval Castle) + Military Museum

My wife's nephews left today just on time for me to be able to attend the go club tonight, that is, about half past four pm. I took Monday, Tuesday and today off from work, so I was able to entertain the guests. Yesterday, we drove up to the town of Hämeenlinna about 75 km west of Lahti. Hämeen Linna was the center of the historical province of Häme (Eng. Tavastia). It is a small town compared to Lahti, about half the population with about 68,000 inhabitants. We also visited Museo Militaria on the premises. There is also a prison museum we did not have time to visit. Next time for sure.

I stopped by to take photos while returning from Tampere on March 1. You might want to check out that post to compare how the castle and the surroundings look like in the winter.

This is the north side. I'll show this one first because it will show up as a thumbnail next to the post in my follower's feeds. The entrance is on the south side. A bridge over the trench is in the foreground.

A trench on the south side viewed from the parking area

The main gate to the castle and prison complex. The prison is a museum nowadays.

The granite stones are the oldest building material. The whole castle is mostly made out of red bricks. The construction work began most likely in the late 13th century. The first mention of the castle in written documents is from the year 1308.

Entrance to the outer courtyard.

The outer courtyard

Entrance into the castle itself. You can see the inner courtyard at the end.

The kitchen or what's left of it

The inner courtyard

There was an exhibition entitled Finnish Silver 1600-1830. I'll show a few works from the collection.

This is a partly gilded silver creamer made by the master silversmith Anders Ekholm, Helsinki in 1770. I think it is unreasonably beautiful. :D

Can you guess what this thing is? No? It's a coffee maker made by the master silversmith Fredrik Tiander in Loviisa in 1842. I wouldn't want to taint that with coffee but I wouldn't mind having one of those in my kitchen.

A watch stand also by themaster silversmith Fredrik Tiander in 1841

A can made by Nathaniel Friedeman in Viipuri (Vyborg). The year this was finished is uncertain but it is between 1702 and 1710. The cover has a picture based on Rafael's Judgement of Solomon.

This board and pieces and game of chess was found in the castle. It is not known who played it. The knights used to play chess.

A typical narrow passage

Another one

The King's Room

The Queen's Bedroom

A view towards the town about 1 km to the south

A view to the east over Lake Vanajavesi

The castle from the west. The prison is in front of it.

After eating we wen't to the military museum.

Museo Militaria

2S5 Giatsint- S, a self-propelled 152 mm Soviet-made heavy cannon that entered service in 1978. Whoever came up with the name demonstrated a sense of humour in naming this beast "Hyacinth".

There were many howitzers from the 1950's and the 1960's.

This is a British-made anti-aircraft guidance radar. In Finland, it was used as an artillery locating radar since the 1960's.

This Soviet-made tracked vehicle was used to pull heavy artillery pieces. It was developed in the Soviet Union in the late 1940's. It is powered by a V12 direct injection diesel engine that has a maximum power out put of 202 kW.

Artillery General Vilho Petter Nenonen

V.P. Nenonen served as the Inspector of Artillery in Finland between 1920 and 1937. This brilliant man was the developer of the Fire Correction Circle, a simple device that allows an artillery observer to quickly give fire corrections to a firing unit without knowing exactly where it is. Before cheap and ubiquitous computers calculating the corrections was time consuming and difficult. Using the Fire Correction Circle, a simple mechanical device, the corrections could be done quickly. This was crucial in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala outside of Vyborg in June-July 1944. The Finns had 900 artillery pieces in the area. They could be dynamically and quickly directed to fire the same target area according to the demands of the battle. At most, 250 guns and mortars were firing at some Soviet armored units shortly before they were known to start their attack. In some cases Soviet armored units were literally stopped in their tracks before their assault. The Soviets themselves had pulverized the Finnish 10th division on the 10th of June 1944 in Valkeasaari just outside Leningrad. Artillery often played a crucial role. The Fire Correction Circle made it much faster to fire at non-fixed targets with as many firing units as possible on demand.

This is the castle from the north from where the military museum is.

A bridge over the trench

This is caused by the heavy wind on Tuesday and not any military operation, I hope.

Lake Vanajavesi to the northeast of the castle

From the northeast

Those iron crosses are typical of medieval buildings. There are those on the walls of the Turku Cathedral, too.