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Founded: 1510-1520Category: Religious sites in Finland
Historical period: Middle Ages (Finland)
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The Church of St. Olaf in Sysmä was built during the first two decades of 16th century. First records of the church in Sysmä date back to the year 1398. There may have been two churches before the present one.
The north and south walls were dismantled in 1832-1835 when the church was converted into cruciform plan according to design by C.L. Engel. The belfry was built in 1845.
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.