Details
Founded: 1641-1643Category: Religious sites in Finland
Historical period: Swedish Empire (Finland)
Rating
3/5 (based on Google user reviews)
Mietoinen Church was built in 1641-1643 and it’s one of the rare stone churches built after the Reformation in the 17th century. It was funded by Henrik Fleming, who was the owner of near Lehtinen manor. The church has been reconstructed several times in the 19th century, and the tower was added in 1818-1819. There are some medieval artefacts inside the church, like the wooden crucifix from the 16th century.
Mietoinen church replaced the previous wooden church known as the Hietamäki chapel. First record of the chapel dates back to year 1366, but the site has been used as cemetery from the Iron Ages.
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.
