Slava Ukraini!

I saw something today that I didn't realize actually existed in our neighborhood. It takes maybe half an hour for me to get from where I live to Siuntio, and there's a nice castle, the Sjundby Castle (or Manor). It was built starting from 1417, by the rapids on the Sjundbyån river. It is not open to the public so maybe that explains why I haven't heard about it.

The first striking thing in this area is the beauty of the wintery rapids by the mill and the castle above on a small hill. The mill is currently running a power generator, producing electricity for the castle.

The second striking thing is the Russian writings in a stone barn by the river, very visible to the road passing through the area. I'm not really sure what times the writings are from, the 19th century when Finland was under Russian rule, or later, during the occupation of this area? Unclear. It was also unclear what the writings exactly say, I can read tiny amount of Russian, but it was of no use. And google translate produced pretty random results in this case as well, maybe because part of the lettering is gone. Anyway, I think the writings are about military honor. 

Have to wonder though what kind of honor was referred to, given the events of February 2022 and onwards... quite appropriately, Ukrainian flag had been put on the side of the building as well. Slava Ukraini!

The castle was within the Soviet Union occupied Porkkala territory after World War II. The buildings were returned to their original owners after the area was returned back to Finland after 12 years. However, the castle had to be renovated, as it had suffered damages during the occupation. For instance, there were holes in the floor of the highest floor, holes had been used as toilets. Who would do that kind of thing???

The coordinates are 60.141072, 24.263738. You can also find out more information about the castle in Wikipedia and Siuntio's page. More information about the occupation can be found also in Wikipedia.

 

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.