Häme Castle or Tavastia Castle is a medieval castle in Kanta-Häme, Finland. It is located in Hämeenlinna, the city between Helsinki and Tampere.
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Häme Castle is, alongside Turku Castle, our most important medieval castle. The castle reflects Hämeenlinna's significance as the military, administrative and economic centre of Häme since the Middle Ages. Häme Castle is also connected to the history of prison administration in the country. The medieval castle is located along Häme's most important waterway, in the narrows of Vanajavesi, in the middle of the area in Kanta-Häme that has been most densely and continuously populated since the Iron Age. Häme Castle comprises the main castle, the curtain wall buildings and the ramparts surrounding them. The oldest part of the main castle is a four-sided campaign castle built of grey stone, whose construction began after the mid-13th century. Inside it, by the beginning of the 14th century, stood the so-called grey stone castle with its vaulted rooms around a square courtyard. From the third construction phase, the mid-14th century, comes the grey stone residential tower projecting at the castle gate, the so-called Cockerel Tower. The castle's brick palace storey dates from the early 15th century. The defensive passage connecting the towers belongs to the last medieval building phase. The main castle is surrounded by a bailey. The castle's current exterior dates largely from the first half of the 18th century, when the castle was converted for use as a granary and depot. The castle's medieval curtain wall of grey stone and brick contains a cannon tower from the 1560s. The curtain wall includes southern, western and northern curtain wall buildings added during the castle's renovation. The southern curtain wall building, i.e. the Crown Bakery, dates from the 1740s. On the bailey courtyard stand buildings such as the main guardhouse and the arrest building from 1783. The tenaille ramparts outside the curtain wall date from the early part of the Russian period. Häme Castle was taken entirely into use as a prison in 1836. The Häme County Prison, located to the west of the castle, consists of three buildings: the Kronoborg reformatory completed in 1844, the county prison cell block built in 1872, and the prison workshop building. The castle is part of the nationally significant built cultural environment 'Häme Castle' and the nationally valuable landscape area 'Vanajavesi Valley and Aulanko'.
Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish
- Municipality
- Hämeenlinna