As John III, the King of Sweden-Finland, was planning a campaign
against Russian Karelia in the late 1500's, a base was needed on the
Finnish side for the army. The Oulu Castle was built for this purpose.
In 1590, the castle was finished on the present island of Linnansaari at
the mouth of the River Oulujoki. This construction made of wood and
earth was the first stage that was reliably known in the history of the
Oulu Castle.
Commander-in-chief Pietari Bagge was the governor of East and
West Bothnia during the years 1591-1592, and he had his quarters in the
Oulu Castle. Thus the trading site of the River Oulujoki became
significant in an administrative sense. In 1605, King Charles IX
commanded that the castle should be rebuilt. In addition, a town was to
be founded on the mainland, opposite the castle.
The castle had not been finished yet in 1609 when weapons and equipment
for a Kola campaign were already gathered in it. Northern expeditions of
conquest failed and the policy of Gustavus II Adolphus, the
successor of Charles IX, was directed towards Central Europe. The
fortress of Oulu was no longer of great importance and little by little
it started to fall into decay.
The most significant period of the history of the Oulu Castle was the
first decades of the 17th century. At that time, the numbers of both the
garrison and the weapons were at their biggest (the garrison consisted
of 50-100 men and the population of the town was 400). The buildings
were also in their best repair.
Occasionally, the governors of Ostrobothnia had their quarters in the
castle until the early 1640's. Even the king visited the castle a few
times. In the late 1600's, the castle was still guarded by a small
number of men. During the years of the Great Northern War (1700-21), the
armature and garrison of the castle were increased, but as the army
retreated from Finland in 1714, the castle remained unoccupied. In 1715,
Russian troops burned the military devices of the castle.
The Oulu Castle met its final destruction on July 31, 1793: a lightning
set the wooden parts of the store cellar on fire. The fire reached the
powder magazine and the black powder that was stored there exploded and
destroyed the building almost in whole. Blocks of stones were thrown to
the town and as far as the nearby island of Pikisaari.
About in 1830, the Oulu Trading Company had the broken part of the stone
cellar repaired as their powder store. The observation tower of the Oulu
Marine School was built on this foundation in 1873. The Marine School
operated until the year 1910. Summer-Café operations were started in the
castle in 1912. |
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