(no subject)
Yesterday I had some wonderful time. I took part on the summer university's archeology excursion ("Itäistä Uuttamaata jatulintarhoista kartanoihin.") It was a lovely trip, if a little tiring (we left at 8:30 am and came back 10 pm.)
The first thing we went to see was the old church of Sipoo that has been built in 1450-1454. One funny thing about that church is that it was first going to have three aisles, as was usual for churches in that time, but when it was already being built, they realized there's no room for eight pillars in such a small church. So, the plans were changed, and now, in the front part of the church there are three aisles, in the back only two.
The next place we went to was a stone age quartz quarry. Of which I would have walked over without noticing anything had there not been that "prehistoric relic, protected by law" sign there. ^^ From there we drove to Porvoo, where we took a boat to one island. But on the way there we stopped by the Porvoo river to admire the landscape. I'm afraid the pics I took don't quite do it justice...
From Porvoo, on the boat, we went to take a look on a very well preserved jatulintarha - something like the Troy Towns in Britain. The boat trip took two hours and it was one of the best parts of the trip (if a bit windy... ^^). The archipelago outside Porvoo is pretty... Once we came to the island where we were going to, we got some problems, though. It took us half an hour to get to land... you see, that island only has some summer homes, and no "official" harbor or anything, so first we had to get permission to get to land, and then to get some room at the harbor for our "big" boat... It was a bit tricky, and I think that in the future it might be a bright idea to contact somebody there before suddenly turning up with 50 something people (especially since to get to the "Troy Town" we had to walk through some gardens... ^^;) Well, everyone there were quite understanding and friendly. Though I can understand why they're not making any big number of their relic - I wouldn't want a group like ours invading the place every weekend or so.
The next target were two manors, Tervik Manor, and Rutumi Manor. The first one was an adorable place, it truly felt like a real manor. The problem with the second one..... well, I liked it too, it was a pretty place. But it had been made over into a cafe, and ... okay, so the difference between these two places was quite apparent in the two ladies of the manor who received us. The Rutumi lady was friendly and kind and putting up a show for us, the Tervik lady was friendly and kind and a Lady. As a result I took lots of pictures of Tervik, but apparently not one of Rutumi. ^^; (So check the link if you want to see it.)
By the time we were out of the manors we were an hour late of our schedule and didn't have time to go to see the barrows (which anyway would have been only piles of stones in the woods), so we went right to see one ryssänuuni. And I've no idea what to call that in English... stone oven, maybe. They are most often connected to making food, though they might have had other uses too. The Finnish name which refers to Russians is based on the fact that the ovens in the Turku archipelago are mainly found in the areas the Russian galleys were during the periods of Great Hate (1700-1721) and Lesser Hate (1742-43). They might have used them as ovens, apparently...
It wasn't a big thing, and we had some difficulty in finding it, as it was there in the middle of the forest with no signs or anything.
The church:
It was quite funny to compare this church to those I went to in Rome. Those were full of paintings by great artists... here, we had what our guide called "primitive paintings". Paintings that, apparently, the church builders already had made. We don't anymore know the meaning of all of them, but there were among other things some pictures that used to be pagan symbols, like eg. the "noidan vaakuna" below, "witch's coat of arms" which is supposed to protect from sickness.
It's that thing in the bottom part... a bit up from it, on that "triangle line", there's the Tree of Life, which seems to be quite common motive. Oh, and in the picture above there's a horse on the right pillar.
[edit] One more thing about the picture above... See those two holes? The bell tower was built later, and this is where the bells used to be. Between the holes, there's a human figure - most likely the bellringer. [/edit]
Here, in the bottom, you can see a classic Troy Town. This isn't the only church with a painting like that, but no one's quite sure of what's their purpose. Here, however, we've got a human figure in the middle of the maze, and, that in turn is not common.
In the left upper corner, there's another Tree of Life with two human figures (some claim they're Adam and Eve, but it's controversial.)
And here, on the left there's a horn blower, on the right a fox-like creature that's trying to catch a crane-like creature (which you can't see.)
And a ship, of course... that is common in churches in archipelago and coast, as I've understood.
The new church of Sipoo (from 19th century) is really close to the old one, as you can see. The pic's taken from the doorway.
Here we are trying to find our way to the quartz quarry. Honestly, if you don't know where these things are, you're never going to find them...
Those pictures make me think of that children's song... "If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise..." Well, we saw no teddy bears there. Nor real ones, luckily. And we did find the quarry:
And here we go again. We didn't get lost. ^^ And luckily the weather was great... this wouldn't have been so fun if it had been raining, I think...
The Porvoo River and the beautiful flower meadow by it:
Did I already mention it was windy on the boat? It was. No one got seasick, though. ^^
And here's the "jatulintarha". (Oh, by the way, that name means literally something like yatuli's garden/guard/??? (not exactly sure what kind of "tarha" this is about) and they were thought to have been built by these giants called jatuli.) I started walking it through (just because) but I didn't have time to get longer than into the middle...
The view from it was quite beautiful:
Tervik Manor:
This place has a huge amount of paintings. That one on the left is the oldest picture they have of someone who has owned the place. I don't anymore remember his name, but I do remember that he was a very bad-tempered fellow. (No, wait, Robert Lichton?) Anyway, he had some important position in court or something, but he was often left out of important meetings as he couldn't behave himself. His wife lived in Stockholm, and they were fighting for 20 years - via letters. No wonder they had no children...
Funny thing, this mirror... see the way it's "broken"? I don't remember the date anymore, but when this mirror (and it's pair, similarly broken) were made, there was such a thing as luxury tax. You had to pay it for a whole mirror... and so the mirrors were made that way, to get round the tax.
There was such a lovely painting of a little girl by Albert Edelfelt, but for some reason I didn't take a picture of it. So here's another painting by him, of someone called Anna. (Me and my memory...)
The main hall with the painting of some queen or another... This place didn't get any electricity until after 1940's. Even now, the only electricity in this room is that light on the doors. Otherwise they use the candles.
And there was a dog there! <3
Back to the forest we go... and we did find the oven thing. Yay. ^^
Funny things there are hidden in the woods...
The first thing we went to see was the old church of Sipoo that has been built in 1450-1454. One funny thing about that church is that it was first going to have three aisles, as was usual for churches in that time, but when it was already being built, they realized there's no room for eight pillars in such a small church. So, the plans were changed, and now, in the front part of the church there are three aisles, in the back only two.
The next place we went to was a stone age quartz quarry. Of which I would have walked over without noticing anything had there not been that "prehistoric relic, protected by law" sign there. ^^ From there we drove to Porvoo, where we took a boat to one island. But on the way there we stopped by the Porvoo river to admire the landscape. I'm afraid the pics I took don't quite do it justice...
From Porvoo, on the boat, we went to take a look on a very well preserved jatulintarha - something like the Troy Towns in Britain. The boat trip took two hours and it was one of the best parts of the trip (if a bit windy... ^^). The archipelago outside Porvoo is pretty... Once we came to the island where we were going to, we got some problems, though. It took us half an hour to get to land... you see, that island only has some summer homes, and no "official" harbor or anything, so first we had to get permission to get to land, and then to get some room at the harbor for our "big" boat... It was a bit tricky, and I think that in the future it might be a bright idea to contact somebody there before suddenly turning up with 50 something people (especially since to get to the "Troy Town" we had to walk through some gardens... ^^;) Well, everyone there were quite understanding and friendly. Though I can understand why they're not making any big number of their relic - I wouldn't want a group like ours invading the place every weekend or so.
The next target were two manors, Tervik Manor, and Rutumi Manor. The first one was an adorable place, it truly felt like a real manor. The problem with the second one..... well, I liked it too, it was a pretty place. But it had been made over into a cafe, and ... okay, so the difference between these two places was quite apparent in the two ladies of the manor who received us. The Rutumi lady was friendly and kind and putting up a show for us, the Tervik lady was friendly and kind and a Lady. As a result I took lots of pictures of Tervik, but apparently not one of Rutumi. ^^; (So check the link if you want to see it.)
By the time we were out of the manors we were an hour late of our schedule and didn't have time to go to see the barrows (which anyway would have been only piles of stones in the woods), so we went right to see one ryssänuuni. And I've no idea what to call that in English... stone oven, maybe. They are most often connected to making food, though they might have had other uses too. The Finnish name which refers to Russians is based on the fact that the ovens in the Turku archipelago are mainly found in the areas the Russian galleys were during the periods of Great Hate (1700-1721) and Lesser Hate (1742-43). They might have used them as ovens, apparently...
It wasn't a big thing, and we had some difficulty in finding it, as it was there in the middle of the forest with no signs or anything.
The church:
It was quite funny to compare this church to those I went to in Rome. Those were full of paintings by great artists... here, we had what our guide called "primitive paintings". Paintings that, apparently, the church builders already had made. We don't anymore know the meaning of all of them, but there were among other things some pictures that used to be pagan symbols, like eg. the "noidan vaakuna" below, "witch's coat of arms" which is supposed to protect from sickness.
It's that thing in the bottom part... a bit up from it, on that "triangle line", there's the Tree of Life, which seems to be quite common motive. Oh, and in the picture above there's a horse on the right pillar.
[edit] One more thing about the picture above... See those two holes? The bell tower was built later, and this is where the bells used to be. Between the holes, there's a human figure - most likely the bellringer. [/edit]
Here, in the bottom, you can see a classic Troy Town. This isn't the only church with a painting like that, but no one's quite sure of what's their purpose. Here, however, we've got a human figure in the middle of the maze, and, that in turn is not common.
In the left upper corner, there's another Tree of Life with two human figures (some claim they're Adam and Eve, but it's controversial.)
And here, on the left there's a horn blower, on the right a fox-like creature that's trying to catch a crane-like creature (which you can't see.)
And a ship, of course... that is common in churches in archipelago and coast, as I've understood.
The new church of Sipoo (from 19th century) is really close to the old one, as you can see. The pic's taken from the doorway.
Here we are trying to find our way to the quartz quarry. Honestly, if you don't know where these things are, you're never going to find them...
Those pictures make me think of that children's song... "If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise..." Well, we saw no teddy bears there. Nor real ones, luckily. And we did find the quarry:
And here we go again. We didn't get lost. ^^ And luckily the weather was great... this wouldn't have been so fun if it had been raining, I think...
The Porvoo River and the beautiful flower meadow by it:
Did I already mention it was windy on the boat? It was. No one got seasick, though. ^^
And here's the "jatulintarha". (Oh, by the way, that name means literally something like yatuli's garden/guard/??? (not exactly sure what kind of "tarha" this is about) and they were thought to have been built by these giants called jatuli.) I started walking it through (just because) but I didn't have time to get longer than into the middle...
The view from it was quite beautiful:
Tervik Manor:
This place has a huge amount of paintings. That one on the left is the oldest picture they have of someone who has owned the place. I don't anymore remember his name, but I do remember that he was a very bad-tempered fellow. (No, wait, Robert Lichton?) Anyway, he had some important position in court or something, but he was often left out of important meetings as he couldn't behave himself. His wife lived in Stockholm, and they were fighting for 20 years - via letters. No wonder they had no children...
Funny thing, this mirror... see the way it's "broken"? I don't remember the date anymore, but when this mirror (and it's pair, similarly broken) were made, there was such a thing as luxury tax. You had to pay it for a whole mirror... and so the mirrors were made that way, to get round the tax.
There was such a lovely painting of a little girl by Albert Edelfelt, but for some reason I didn't take a picture of it. So here's another painting by him, of someone called Anna. (Me and my memory...)
The main hall with the painting of some queen or another... This place didn't get any electricity until after 1940's. Even now, the only electricity in this room is that light on the doors. Otherwise they use the candles.
And there was a dog there! <3
Back to the forest we go... and we did find the oven thing. Yay. ^^
Funny things there are hidden in the woods...