The sixth of the Twelve Days of Christmas

In the morning we drove Emma to the railway station, she headed to Helsinki for a day trip with her friend Rosanna. We drove to Voipaala to hike the Rapola ridge path. Rapola Hill Fort is Finland's largest ancient hill fort, which probably was built in the Viking Age, in the 9th to 11th centuries. At the Rapola Hill Fort area there is a unique and extensive area of relics from the Iron Age, including an ancient field, sacrificial or cup-marked stones and burial grounds.

Rapola  hill fort on the Rapola esker was probably a part of chain of hill forts on the shores of Lake Vanajavesi. The crest of the ridge was surrounded by an approximately one-kilometre long construction, mainly made of wood. All that now remains is a low wall consisting of supporting and foundation stones. It is uncertain whether Rapola was inhabited during the first centuries of the Christian era. The oldest burial grounds in the area date back to the 5th and 6th centuries.  The objects found in the burial grounds indicate that people in Rapola had contacts with faraway corners of the world through trade. The Rapola Hill Fort was most likely still used in the Middle Ages. 

It was the most interesting area and we decided to come back in the summer. For instance, we saw cup-marked stones, but they were under ice cover (cup-marked stones have been used in fertility rites and ritual slaughters as well as to remember the dead.)


-2°C, cloudy