So I am born in Kitee, but I study in Savonlinna, that is historically much more rich than my little hometown. One of the castles of Finland, Olavinlinna, was build there 1475 when it was the Savonlinna city was the border of Russia and Finland. There are many stories about the history of the castle. Here I tell only two of them.

The rowan tree of the Olavinlinna castle

The most famous story of the castle tells about a young girl, who fell in love with a russian officer and secretly let him into the castle at night. The man ofcourse used the situation to open the gate for the russian troops, but was caught before he could do that, and beheaded. The girl was buried alive in the castle wall, and later on a rowan started to grow from the wall in that spot and people said it's red berries were made of heartblood, and white flowers of innocense. Allso they say that the girl appears standing on the wall in full moonlight.

The black ram of the Olavinlinna castle

Once there was a black ram in the castle, that saved the castle from an attack. One stormy night russians surrounded the castle and shot fire arrows, and one of those arrows hit the ram and it's fleece caught on fire. The animal ran up to the castle walls, yelling in hellish pain, and raised on it's hind legs. The enemy saw a black, flaming figure with big horns. Thought it was the devil himself and ran away. The poor ram died, but later people carved a statue of it.

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