the square at the old town of Rauma
Where we had just seen the ‘wooden houses museum’ in Turku, a group of well preserved and well protected over 200 year old wooden houses, Rauma has the real thing. The centre of the old town is entirely made up of wooden houses, still being used, as residences and as shops and restaurants. Most are ground floor-only, occasionally there is a second floor; most are simple affairs, with simple windows and simple doors, but often neatly adorned, with a lace curtains or decorative items in the window sills. There are clearly people living here. Some houses have been neatly restored, perhaps even exaggeratedly so, others could use a bit of paint, or a carpenter, but the main thing is that this is a wooden town like they used to be in Finland, all of them – or at least most of them, wood being the cheapest building material, plentiful available. Nowadays perhaps rare enough that UNESCO has put this one on its World Heritage List.
wooden houses and shops in Rauma
a steep street in Rauma
another wooden house, single story
the church tower of Old Rauma
church interior, with at the end the painted vault
intricately painted vault of Rauma church, claimed to be from before the Reformation
puppets outside a window
another narrow Rauma street
and a last view, on the cobbled stones of the old town
another wooden farm building, a barn
In fact, there is plenty of wood around. We drive through the countryside, dominated by trees – birches, conifers, pine trees, a lot of variety. Occasionally the woods are interrupted by agricultural fields, most of the harvest has been collected already. And dotted throughout the countryside are the Finnish farms, also mostly made of wood, like the houses in Rauma.
wooden farm building in the country side
the track, here quite clear, to the Sammallahdenmaki burial site
heaps of stone representing burial mounds
another clear burial mound
Unexpectedly, outside Rauma we encounter a second UNESCO World Heritage Site, the bronze age burial mounds of Sammallahdenmaki. Not knowing what to expect, we turn of the main road, manage to find a parking place associated with the site, and take off walking. Maps are rather unclear, paths not very well sign-posted, but we do find several piles of rock, no doubt representing the mounds. Not the most impressive, perhaps, but with the late afternoon sun illuminating not only the mounds, but also the entire entourage of rock surface, white heather-type of plant cover, green mosses and variable-coloured mushrooms, this was a magic experience, quintessential Finland, I suppose. Gabbros, gneisses and granites, and a bit of vegetation.
and the highest one on site
and then there are the mushrooms
almost hidden between the grasses
or between the heather, or what looks like that
red hood difficult to hide, though
Never mind that we don’t reach our destination for the day, and end up in the rather destitute town of Sastamala, and the even more destitute local hotel. Which provides us with free earplugs; anything to do with the disco one floor lower?
Next: we visit several churches.
