History of Hamina Bastion

The city of Hamina was founded by Pieter Brahe in 1653 on the site of the former Vehkalahti. The city was initially named Weckelax Nystad, or Vehkalahti New Town. After the city was destroyed in the Great Northern War, it was rebuilt in a circular plan in the 1720s. At the same time, the city was given a new name, Fredrikshamn, after the Swedish king Fredrik I. In Finnish, the name was translated as Hamina.

The birth of the fortress

In the 1700th century, Sweden began to fortify its eastern border against Russia. At that time, Hamina also became a fortified town. When the Russians continued the fortification work begun by the Swedes in the 1740s, the Russian period, the so-called Old Finland period, began in Hamina.

At the beginning of the 1800th century, the construction of the fortress continued with a modern caponier fortification system. A large bastion, the so-called Central Bastion, was built on the shore of Lake Kirkkojärvi, with caponiers Puolikuu 1 and 2 on either side of the moat. Instead of artillery positions, only a firing platform and a breastwork for riflemen were built in the Central Bastion. 58 brick vaults, or casemates, were built inside the rampart. The casemates have a total length of approximately 240 meters. The construction work was completed in the early 1810s.

After its construction, the Central Bastion served as a garrison storage area until the 1970s, when its restoration began. The badly collapsed casemates were largely rebuilt. The work required 600,000 new bricks. At the same time, the bastion's original log foundations were reinforced and the earthen rampart and breastwork on top of the Central Bastion were reshaped. The restoration work was carried out by the Hamina work colony under Konnunsuo Central Prison.

Transformation of the central bastion into an event arena

When preparing the use plan for the Central Bastion in the late 1980s, the Hamina City Architectural Office decided that the historic and unique area should be open to the public. The use of the fortress' cultural and historical potential, the popularity of Hamina Tattoo and the development of tourism gave rise to the idea of ​​building the Central Bastion into a leisure centre.

The idea presented by the City of Hamina to put the Central Bastion into operation suited the goals of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities and the Prison Service. Although the idea was credible, the uniqueness of the project required creative planning and cooperation before the construction decisions were made in the city, the Ministry of the Interior and the EU bodies in 1997. Since then, the Central Bastion has been presented around the world as an exemplary project based on history and aimed at the future.

The main events of Hamina Tattoo, the marching shows, have taken place since 1998 in the restored and tented Hamina Bastion arena in the very heart of the city.