Hello!
I arrived to Finland a couple of days ago. Just in time for the Medieval Market, which is held at the Old Great Square (Vanha Suurtori) on this weekend.
I met some toyvoyagers on the bank on Aurajoki (joki = river) near the Old Great Square. Hanne Hü, Qah and Mr. Moose invited me to join them and that's what I did.
The red building is Katedralskolan (Katedraalikoulu in Finnish, Cathedral School in English). It was the first school in Finland and was established by Catholic monks in the Middle Ages. Of course the building itself isn't that old, it was built after the Great Fire on 1827. In the Middle Ages Katedralskolan was mostly for educating priests, now it's upper secondary school for those who speak Swedish. (Finland is bilingual country with Finnish and Swedish as official languages.)
A quick view towards Aurajoki and the Handicrafts Market on the other side, before we went to explore the Medieval Market.
Here we are at the Old Great Square. Merchants are selling their "medieval" products - different handicrafts, paintings, ointments, food, etc. Then there are actors - mostly amateurs and hobbyists - dressed up as medieval people. They have a partly trained and partly improvised show going on for the duration of the market. Although the actors aren't the only ones who have dressed up, some regular market-goers and hobbyists do that too.
This building is the Brinkkala Mansion. It has a long history, beginning on the 16th century. The building was badly burnt on the Great Fire and then it was renovated to become the Town Hall. Now the Town Hall is located on the bank of Aurajoki near Auransilta and Brinkkala Mansion is best known for the traditional proclamation of Christmas peace, which is proclaimed from the balcony on Christmas Eve at noon.
Porthaninpuisto (Porthan park) is right next to the Old Great Square and the masters of medieval crafts are showing their skills there.
There were some sheep in the park, too.
Then it was time for a break. We went back to the river bank with some traditional confections and the program. Mr. Moose translated it for us, so we found out what's going on and where.
Then we went to explore the market again and watched a part of the show, too.
Later we went to watch a tournament by Rohan Stables. It was probably the most exciting part of the day.
After the tournament it was time to leave the Middle Ages and return to our own time.
Greetings,
ZeeZee
