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Founded: 1689 - 20th centuryCategory: Industrial sites in Finland
Historical period: Swedish Empire (Finland)
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The iron manufacturing in Kauttua started in 1689, when nobleman Lorentz Creutz was granted to establish an ironworks to Kauttua rapids. The ironworks business created an historically valuable industrial village milieu, which is called today as “Kauttua Ruukinpuisto”. In 1907 the ironworks was acquired by Ahlström Oy and it was changed to manufacture paper.
Most of village buildings are from the 19th century. One of the most finest buildings is so called clubhouse (functioning as restaurant today), which was built in 1802. There are also many buildings designed by the most famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.
Today the ironworks area is open to the public providing accomodation, conference and restaurant services. There’s also an ironworks museum and guided tours to milieu are available.
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.