Turku Castle Built From the 1200s to the 1600s.

Last week while out fulfilling our responsibilities we had a chance to see the castle in Turku, Finland. We found out that Turku used to be the 'center' of the area where Finns lived. The country itself is just 100 years old, and it has a history of belonging to both of it neighbors, Sweden and Russia, even though they've had a unique language and culture. We are excited that we will be here in 2017 to celebrate the 100th year since they declared their independence from Russia 

The castle was built in the 1200's with additions for 400 years. 

As you can see it was built on an enormous rock, we've seen many such rick formations since we've been in Finland. 

This is a closeup of the stone walls. 

Going through the entrance we were surprised to enter a town square, that was open to the sky. 

With dwellings on all sides, leading into other courtyards... the outcropping of the original rock on which the fortress was built coming up through the street. 

There are doorways and balconies. 

There's even a drawbridge. 

The windows have lead dividers, I loved them!! 

There was this walkway along one wall 

This pictures shows the opening from the second court yard into the larger town square area. 

This archway leads to two more open areas, one of which is much later ... 

You can see from this shot of  the wall that the  surrounding wall apartment structure is four and five stories high.  The footprint of the fortress is several acres. It was really a town. 

We loved our visit and will later go back and do a tour of the apartments, so we can see how people lived 700 to 800 years ago. 

Here's my last view of the amazing castle through my rain dotted window.