Oulu Castle
Oulu Castle(Swedish:Uleåborgs slott,[1]Finnish:Oulun linna) was a late defense castle inOulu,Finland.It was built on an island in the delta ofOulu Riverin 1590. The castle was mostly made of wood and earth walls. There probably was an earlier medieval castle on the same site latest by 1375. The RussianSophia Chroniclehas recorded that men fromNovgorodtried to conquer a new castle in the Oulu River delta in 1377 but were unsuccessful.
The present-day ruins on theLinnansaariisland remain from an even later castle, which was built in 1605 by order of KingCharles IX.The king's power of attorney of April 8, 1605, first orders the construction ofKajaani Castleand then orders the rebuilding of Oulu Castle. According to the order, the old wooden structures had to be demolished and a rampart withfire sheltershad to be built around the island.[2]
The castle was badly damaged in 1715, when Russian forces burned it during theGreat Northern War.Final destruction of the castle took place on July 31, 1793, at 10:45 p.m.,[3]when lightning set the other one of thepowder magazineson fire; as a result, the powder cellar exploded and destroyed the building almost completely.
Wooden constructions on the remaining powder magazine date from 1875 when the Oulu School of Sea Captains built their observatory on the site. The building was designed by architect Wolmar Westling. The building has been a cafeteria since 1912 with a small exhibition on the castle history.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^The original 16th-century Swedish name contains the Swedish word for castle twice as both "borg" and "slott" mean castle. This is likely because the probable name "Uleåborg" (Oulu Castle) of the short-lived 14th-century castle was also established as the Swedish name of the near-by settlement and eventually that of the town ofOulu.Thus the word "slott" was added to the later castle's name to separate it from the settlement.
- ^A. H. Virkkunen (1953).Oulun kaupungin historia I(in Finnish). Kirjola Oy. pp. 90–91.
- ^Aimo Halila (1953).Oulun kaupungin historia II(in Finnish). Kirjola Oy. p. 717.
External links
[edit]
- Oulu Castle history(in English)
- Oulu Castle’s stone cellar - Visit Oulu(in English)
65°01′02″N025°28′02″E/ 65.01722°N 25.46722°E
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