The Gentry Home Museum

The Runeberg-exhibition

6. Heikki Varja: Saarijärven Paavo, 1960, bronze. 7.Cruel Ponds. 8. The Monument to the Battle of Karstula during the Finnish War. 9. Lake scenery in Saarijärvi.

Gentry Home Museum

Kolkanrinteentie 39, Kolkanlahti tel. 044 4598 411,

In the office hours 014 439 688

Open in the summer. In other times open for groups upon reservation.

www.saarijarvi.fi/museo

Later on, the experiences in Saarijärvi percolated through different literary and ideological inspirations into poetry in which the portrayal of inland Finnish landscape and people had a significant role. Among others, the poem “Saarijärven Paavo”, “Hirvenhiihtäjät” and the narrative poem “Hanna” go through those experiences Runeberg had as a young graduate in Central Finland. He made good use of his experiences in Saarijärvi and Ruovesi when he wrote “The Tales of Ensign Stål.” Runeberg’s employer, captain af Enehjelm had participated in the Finnish War. The battles of the Finnish War (1808-1809) in the Saarijärvi region were only 15 years in the past and the events of the war were still a topic of discussion in the area. Lintulahti in Kyyjärvi and Karstula had been the notable battle locations of the Finnish War in the Saarijärvi region. Saarijärvi had also been occupied by the Russians. Finnish translations of “The Tales of Ensign Stål” made Runeberg a national poet of all the people in Finland.

J. L. Runeberg had described the inland Finnish lake scene already in 1832 in his article “Few words about nature, national character and the way of life in the parish of Saari-järvi” that was published in the Helsingfors Morgonblad –newspaper. Similar scenery description can be found in the narrative poem “Hanna” and it is encapsulated in the poem “Our Land” which became the Finnish National Anthem.

The poem “Saarijärven Paavo” was Runeberg’s first im-portant poem about a Finnish-speaking common man. It was published in 1830 in Runeberg’s first collection. The Paavo of Saarijärvi has his own monument in Saarijärvi; in 1961 a bronze Saarijärven Paavo –statue by Heikki Varja was unveiled in the church’s park.

Part of the nature from Runeberg’s time has survived al-most untouched in the present nature reserve area of the “Cruel Ponds.” Runeberg was an enthusiastic hunter and when he looked for game, he roamed through this impres-sive pond scenery located between Kolkanlahti and Kalma-ri. Description of this scenery can be found in his Saarijärvi -article. It is possible to get to know the area by walking along the Runeberg’s Path.

The Gentry Home Museum

The Runeberg-exhibition

The Gentry Home Museum operates in the former main building of the Kolkanlahti estate. The estate belonged to the gentry from its foundation in the 1780s to the late 19th century. Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) worked during the years 1823-1825 as a tutor in the family of Captain Erik Gustaf af Enehjelm, who was the owner of the estate at the time. The museum is dedicated to J. L. Runeberg’s years in Saarijärvi. The room where J. L. Runeberg lived during his years as a tutor is upstairs. There is also an exhibition about the poet’s time in Saarijärvi. The exhibition includes a multimedia presentation and a possibility to listen to the recordings of Runeberg’s poems. The downstairs has been furnished to portray the way people lived during Runeberg’s time. The furnishing is somewhat more modest than in the gentry homes in our neighbouring countries, but its neoclassical Gustavian and Biedermeier style furniture is typical for the gentry.

Photos of the brochure: Olavi Lahtela, Pekka Riihimäki, Ilpo Kuisma and Kari Kotilainen.

The main building of the Kolkanlahti estate, the current Gentry Home Museum, dates back to the 1780s. The bak-ery room and two chambers were added later in the 19th century. When the museum was founded the building was also renovated. The original central hall layout of the house was restored and the oldest colours used in the building were discovered and partially put on display. The restora-tion was completed in the years 2003 and 2004, when among other things the original colours of the doors were restored and the walls of the hall were painted to match the original paintwork.

J. L. Runeberg was a 19-year-old secondary school graduate when he arrived in Saarijärvi in December 1823. He had had to stop his studies in the Turku Academy because of his lack of money and accept the appointment of a tutor that was offered to him in Saarijärvi. His job was to prepare the children of Captain Erik Gustaf af Enehjelm and bailiff Daniel Filip Danielson so that they could go to the trivial school of Vaasa. Both families had two sons who needed tutoring. To adjust the expenses the tutor lived in both houses in turn. He stayed in the home of af Enehjelm in Kolkanlahti and in the Danielson estate in Kalmari for three months at a time. At the end of the summer 1825 Rune-berg moved to Ruovesi, where Captain af Enehjelm had bought the Ritoniemi mansion. There he taught the boys for the autumn and returned to Turku in the beginning of 1826.

In Saarijärvi, the young poet found a whole new and ex-citing environment. Inland Finnish landscape and the peo-ple of the chimneyless huts were quite an experience for a boy who came from a Swedish-speaking burgher home on the coast. This experience had a remarkable effect on his later works. While in Saarijärvi, Runeberg wrote poems in his small blue-covered book, a so-called “Blue book.” The majority of the poems in the book were written in Saarijär-vi, the name day poems for the members of the host family and the other acquaintances, for example.

1. The Gentry Home Museum. 2. The Hall. 3. Runeberg’s chamber. 4. Porch in 2004 after the renova-tion. 5. Summer day in the estate of Kalmari in Saarijärvi. Watercol-our painting by C. W. Gyldén from the 1820s. According to tradition the man who sits in the painting his back towards the onlooker is J. L. Runeberg.