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Founded: 1790-1793Category: Castles and fortifications in Finland
Historical period: The Age of Enlightenment (Finland)
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Kärnäkoski fortress was part of the South-Eastern Finland fortification system built by Russians in the 1790's. Purpose of the fortress was to protect the strategic road to St. Petersburg and Russians fleet in Saimaa against Swedish enemies from the west. Building was started in 1790 by French engineer officers and it's a tradional French bastion system. Approximately 1400 Russian soldiers and local peasants were forced to construction work and many of them died in hard work and illnesses.
Kärnäkoski protected the border only 15 years and after Finnish War in 1808-1809 fortress lost its defensive value. Kärnäkoski was disbanded in 1835 by the tsar Nicholas I. After that fortress was disarmed, buildings and remaining equipment were auctioned and the walls and fortifications were left untended. Kärnäkoski never took part to a military action, but in Finland Civil War (1918) several battles were fought nearby.
Today Kärnäkoski fortress is a tourist attraction, although there are no guided tours or other tourist or travel services in the fortress, simply guidance signs. Finnish National Board of Antiquities and Finnish Ministry of the Environment have listed the fortress area as nationally significant cultural historic landmark. NBA has restored Kärnäkoski fortress to its former shape together with other fortresses in south-eastern Finland. Walls were repaired and the fortress area was restored and cleared. Other historical buildings nearby are an old barge harbor, mill and saw built in 1830s and a double-arch stone bridge from 1886. The mill has not been used since 1950s, but was restored by a local village organization in 2002.
Linderhof is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.
Ludwig II, who was crowned king in 1864, began his building activities in 1867-1868 by redesigning his rooms in the Munich Residenz and laying the foundation stone of Neuschwanstein Castle. In 1868 he was already making his first plans for Linderhof. However, neither the palace modelled on Versailles that was to be sited on the floor of the valley nor the large Byzantine palace envisaged by Ludwig II were ever built.
Instead, the new building developed around the forester's house belonging to his father Maximilian II, which was located in the open space in front of the present palace and was used by the king when crown prince on hunting expeditions with his father.