Laukko

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, we did a little family tour around the region. We started out west towards Hämeenkyrö. The first quick stop was to admire the view over lake Sarkkilanjärvi (extra #1), then we had coffee at Maisemakahvila (Landscape café, extra #2) which is open just for a few weeks in the summer.

After that we headed southeast towards Laukko manor (in the main blip) in Vesilahti. It's an interesting place, beautiful and full of history, even though almost all the buildings have been built as late as the 1930's to replace ones that had been burned in the 1918 war. It was the home of the Kurki family since times before the written history to the early 19th century, then Törngrens, Standertskjölds, Haarlas and now Lagerstams.

All of them have had an impact on the national history in one way or the other. During Törngrens, Elias Lönnrot worked in Laukko as a tutor, got interested in the Finnish language, poetry and folktales and started working on Kalevala which he also finished and signed there later.

The most important event of the Standertskjöld era was probably the strike of the tenants which ended in a large eviction in 1907, and probably influenced in the increasing social tensions, leading to the 1918 war in which the manor was burned.

Industrialist Rafael Haarla bought the manor in 1929 and had it completely rebuilt, but this era (and perhaps the whole manor) is best known for the introduction of the white-tailed deer to the Finnish nature. The first seven (or six according to some sources) were released in 1938 and now their number is over 100,000! A deer burger in the manor restaurant in the extra #3.

Lagerstams moved in 50 years ago. First they had dairy cattle, but concentrated then on beef production, although they are best known for their race horses. The current owners are Liisa Lagerstam and Jouni Minkkinen. Five years ago they gave up the horse breeding. Since 2016, the manor is open for tourists. They have exhibitions, concerts and a very good restaurant.

After Laukko we headed back home via Tampere and had ice cream in Mustalahti harbour (extra #4).

The weather was getting warmer towards the evening. In Tampere the car thermometer had +28°C for a while.