Details
Founded: 1570sCategory: Palaces, manors and town halls in Finland
Historical period: Reformation (Finland)
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Järppilä manor was first mentioned in the 1480s. Bertil Ivarsson Grön acquired Järppilä in 1567 and since him the chain of manor owners is uninterrupted. The manor has been owned by famous Horn and Fleming noble families.
The original main building was a three-storey manor-castle built in the 1570s. It was destroyed in the was between Duke Charles and King of Sweden Sigismund (1597–1599). Today only a small tower remains and is restored as a magazine.
The basement of the present Järppilä manor house was probably built in the 17th century. The empire style building was completed to the present appearance in the 1830s. Järppilä has been held by the current family since 1898. Today it offers event and wedding services.
The Externsteine (Extern stones) is a distinctive sandstone rock formation located in the Teutoburg Forest, near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg. The formation is a tor consisting of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills. Archaeological excavations have yielded some Upper Paleolithic stone tools dating to about 10,700 BC from 9,600 BC.
In a popular tradition going back to an idea proposed to Hermann Hamelmann in 1564, the Externsteine are identified as a sacred site of the pagan Saxons, and the location of the Irminsul (sacral pillar-like object in German paganism) idol reportedly destroyed by Charlemagne; there is however no archaeological evidence that would confirm the site's use during the relevant period.
The stones were used as the site of a hermitage in the Middle Ages, and by at least the high medieval period were the site of a Christian chapel. The Externsteine relief is a medieval depiction of the Descent from the Cross. It remains controversial whether the site was already used for Christian worship in the 8th to early 10th centuries.
The Externsteine gained prominence when Völkisch and nationalistic scholars took an interest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This interest peaked under the Nazi regime, when the Externsteine became a focus of nazi propaganda. Today, they remain a popular tourist destination and also continue to attract Neo-Pagans and Neo-Nazis.