Our staying in Savonlinna begun with a visit to the Olavinlinna Castle and the Riihisari museum, which also hosts the offices of Savonlinna Travel, where we are doing our internship.
The Olavinlinna castle dates back to 1475. It was built by Erik Axelsson Tott to protect the Savo region from attacks and battles.
During our guided visit, we learned that, originally, the castle was built with four towers and one of them fell down during some attacks. A fifth tower was planned too, but there wasn’t any space left to build the foundation.
In 1871, the Senate decided that the castle should’ve become an heritage site, so between 1872 and 1877 some renovations took place. Actually, the biggest renovation took place between 1961 and 1975 and it was the biggest of its kind in Finnish history.
Many people lived in the castle, not just soldiers. It was populated by officials and craftsmen, like scribes, caretakers, coopers, brewers and cobblers. A really interesting fact we learned is that a woman actually took care of the basement, where the most important and valuable things were kept, which was pretty unusual at the time.
The castle also hosts a church dedicated to Saint Olaf, where usually the people living in the castle went to attend the religious services. The little church is still rarely used for some services. Next to the church there is a little room linked by a small window, through which people who had contagious diseases or were in prison could attend the services.
The biggest room was the King’s Hall, where guests could enter and enjoy themselves, by eating fish, meat, eggs and wine.
Right now, the central part of the museum is occupied by some tents, which will serve as the venue for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, taking place between July and August.
Right next to the castle, you can find the Riihisari museum, which hosts a lot of the Savonlinna history, as well as some dedicated exhibitions, eg. a Barbie exhibition and an aisle completely dedicated to ice hockey, Finland’s national sport.
The ground floor is almost completely dedicated to the ice hockey and Barbie exhibition, as well as some paintings. In the first floor, we can see a 3D model of Savonlinna in the thirties, a lot of rock paintings and old clothes and accessories.
A big part of the first floor is dedicated to the old steamboats, with a lot of scale reproductions. Those steamboats are still heated nowadays every now and then.
A small part of the museum is also entirely assigned to the history of sauna, a very big and important thing in Finland.
The castle and the museum are definitely two of the biggest attractions in Savonlinna, and everybody should a hundred percent visit them.
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