Horror tours begin in Turku Castle

Fate of Jaakko Ilkka illuminates bloody history of famous Finnish landmark

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By Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen
     
     The walls of Turku Castle felt rough against the back of famous Finnish rebel Jaakko Ilkka.
      Ilkka sat in the dungeon, leaning against the 300-year-old wall that was two metres thick. His dreams of escape rebounded from the grey stone barrier back to his lice-infested head.
     
The Ostrobothnian horse-raiser and land seller never would have guessed that he would soon find plenty of blood and excrement in his path.
     It was the autumn of 1596, and Ilkka was in prison, facing charges of involvement in a peasant's uprising.
     Vice Regent Klaus Fleming, the lord of the castle, had thrown Ilkka into a small cell at the eastern end of the main castle, below the floor of the prison guards.
     The cold wall lay heavily on the mind of Jaakko Ilkka, son of Pentti.
     But then, 510 years ago, Ilkka noticed the hole in the privy on the opposite wall.
     
Jaakko Ilkka's dungeon is a cornerstone of Finnish penal care, and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Turku Castle.
     The power that was exercised from inside the walls of the castle tormented Finns for centuries: there was starvion, beheadings, mutilation, and impaling.
     Now the gory history of the castle is being used to lure tourists.
     During the winter, actual guided tours of horror are taking place to allow visitors to learn about the macabre stories of the castle.
     
The tours begin late in the evening. In the winter time, it is as dark as it ever was in the middle ages.
     Visitors will learn all about the "darkness of the human mind", says researcher Same Kotivuori of the Turku Museum, who is thoroughly familiar with the castle.
     "There is no lack of material."
     For instance, in November 1599 numerous leading Finns were beheaded in the Turku Market on the orders of Duke Charles. The heads were impaled on poles and put on display on the roof of the Turku Court, as was customary at the time.
     Detaching the head from a human body is a messy business. Blood gushing from a severed artery in the neck can fly distance of up to three metres. It was this aspect of beheading that led to its being given up as the preferred method of execution.
     
What about Jaakko Ilkka and the privy hole?
     Ilkka knew that behind the hole there was a drain, through which he could escape the castle. He succeeded in slipping out of the castle through the smelly path to the fresher side of the castle wall. To help him on his way he used a rope that he had fashioned from his own clothing.
     The details of the escape have been lost in history, but in any case Ilkka displayed tenaciousness and inventiveness, which the Ostrobothnian tribe remains famous for to this day.
     Unfortunately, Jaakko Ilkka was soon caughtand beheaded.
     After that, the rest of his body was cut into pieces, and the pieces were sent to different parts of the province to serve as a warning to others.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.11.2006

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Profession - executioner

MIKKO-PEKKA HEIKKINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mikko-pekka.heikkinen@hs.fi