We went on one of hour day trips again and visited the town of Porvoo. My wife had always wanted to visit the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg's (1804-1877) home museum. Runeberg wrote in Swedish. He was a notable lyricist and an epic poet who had a large influence in literature also in Sweden. Runeberg taught Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium. He was also a journalist and a minister of the church as his lectorate required him to be ordained. Runeberg was also a docent at the university of Turku (moved to the new capital Helsinki after the great fire in 1828). An important subject matter in his works is the common people of Finland and their struggles in the harsh climate. Runeberg was heavily influenced by the classical Greek and Roman literature. He also wrote the national anthem. His most popular work is Tales of Ensign Stål, an epic poem about the defensive war against Russia in 1808-1809, which the Realm of Sweden lost resulting in Finland being incorporated into the Russian Empire as an autonomous Grand Duchy.
Johan Ludvig Runeberg's home is in the new part of the town. He bought it in 1852 to house his family and four servants. The Runeberg's had eight children, six of whom survived in to adulthood. They also entertained a large number of guests from time to time. The notables of Finland's cultural life at the time and many foreign visitors would stay at the house often for months at a time. The size of the main building is about 350 m2 in size. Runeberg could afford it despite not inheriting anything of note because he had a lectorate at the gymnasium and because he earned about as much as a poet.
The main entrance
Many of the children of the Runebergs traveled a lot as grownups. They would send seeds to their mother Fredrika Runeberg who planted many exotic plants in the garden. Mrs. Runeberg is best known for the traditional Runeberg's torta to be enjoyed on Runeberg's Day on the 5th of February:
Image by Bengt Oberger CC BY-SA 3.0
J.L. Runeberg, by his son Walter Rungeberg who was a sculptor.
There were about a thousand books in J.L. Runeberg's collection.
Typical of the layouts of homes of the era
J.L. Runeberg was an amateur hunter. When he bought the house, there was little else but the town gardens near it. He is said to have spent time hunting for wolves outside the house. Wolves were a menace in Finland in the 19th century. There were several cases of small children having fallen prey to wolves near the old capital Turku. That resulted in wolves being hunted down to near extinction because a reward was paid for every dead wolf. As you might imagine, the same thing happened as with bid bots on Steem: some people started farming them. :)
Nowadays, wolves are a protected species.
Notice the shortness of the beds. They were of adjustable length typical of the era.
Taken from the new bridge over the river Porvoo. The cathedral of Porvoo and its bell tower are in the center right.
A scenery from the new part of Porvoo. The town has a population of about 50,000. It's bilingual. About a half of the population is Finnish-speaking and the rest speak Swedish.
From the old town of Porvoo. The museum guide told me that most of these buildings didn't even have plumbing or sewers until the 1980s. It's not very large, about half a square kilometer at most but it's on a rocky hill and expensive and difficult to make modern infrastructure on. In her childhoold, the district was a little fearsome even. Since the 1980s the place has undergone rapid gentrification and those houses tend to be quite expensive.
Pispala in Tampere is a bit similar. Once a district for poor factory workers, nowadays for millionaires.
There are a lot of tourists here in the summer.
The high frequency of fires should surprise nobody.
The pink building is the old town hall. It's a museum nowadays.
A glimpse of the river can seen on the extreme left.
The cathedral. Burned in an arson in 2006.
The bell tower.
Back to the car. Starting to get dark.
The slantedness of the walls is not an artifact of the kit lens.