THE OLD COURTS OF THE FORTRESS ARE OPEN FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY 28.7.-1.8. FROM 12.00-18.00.

Admire the old private courtyards of the Hamina fortress area, which open as a gateway to the public during the Hamina Tattoo week. The gardens and courtyards of the old fortress town of Hamina have become a favorite destination for Tattoo. You can tour the atmospheric courtyards in the unique circular town, experiencing living cultural history, enjoy courtyard concerts by small ensembles of musical groups, Pop Up cafes, art exhibitions and flea markets. The information boards at the gates of the courtyards introduce you to the history of the houses and the entire fortress town.

Free entry!

Note: We recommend arriving early for the outdoor concerts, as places fill up quickly.

Organized by the Hamina Fortress Old Houses Association and Hamina Tattoo

Old Gardens Within the Fortress and the Tattoo Time Program

TUESDAY 28.7.2026

A) Basque House 1941

Sibelius Street 30

NOTE! The courtyard is only open during the concert.

YARD CONCERT
Tue 28.7. from 12:30 to 13:00 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pipes (RCMP), Canada

The Baski House was completed in 1914. It is in the style of “late Art Nouveau”. The house was designed by a Hamina-born Axel Toivonen. He also designed the Pursi Pavilion and the Hamina Workers' Hall. Perhaps his most famous design work was the so-called Puu-Käpylä in Helsinki. The builder was Panimomesteri Georg Fredrich Gerhard BASKHe was the owner of the Haminalainen brewery. Edward Baskin son. The builder of the house did not have time to enjoy his house for long, as he lost his life during the War of Independence in Kouvola in 1918. After Bask, the then managing director of Panimo Oy E.Bask became the owner of the house. Topi Silvo. The change of ownership and its exact date are currently unknown. Silvo served as the Brewery's managing director until 1934. He was the owner of the house until 1957. In the final stages, several families lived in the house and the yard building.

In 1957 the house was transferred to a German doctor Ludwig Geirin management. He bought it together with his wife. Geier practiced his profession in the house and also had a so-called false wall built there to separate the reception from the living quarters. That wall was only “realized” in the 1980s and was demolished in the same way. Geier obviously did his job well, because for years after he moved in, patients were still seeking his office.

In 1963, a Hamina resident Raimo Strömberg and his wife Vuokko fell in love with the house and purchased it. Although they had “slightly” different views on the purpose of using the house/plot. Raimo saw it as a perfect place for a new commercial building and Vuokko saw it as a beautiful and idyllic Art Nouveau home. Just over a month after the purchase, the drawings for the new modern commercial building were ready, fortunately they are still unused.

In 2002, there was a generational change in the house and Tuomas ja Iia Strömberg took over as the owners of the house. At that time, the house was also “walked through” both inside and out. One of the special features of the house is its nine tiled stoves. Five of them are more decorative and four are more everyday versions. Seven of the stoves are still in use. The yard also includes a laundry and baking room, as well as a barn and an outdoor shelter. The yard sauna was built around the turn of the 1950s and 60s.

B) Govinius House 1824

Little Circle Street 13 C

YARD CONCERT
Tue 28 July at 4:30–5:00 PM MPK Southern Finland Orchestra Clarinet Quartet

Pop Up Rose Café is open.

Govinius House was built in 1824 and is located on one of the smallest plots of land in the Fortress. The owners of the house have been the housekeeper Fredrica Törnqvist, city servant Henrik J. Grondahl, Lieutenant Engineer Feodor Mikhailov, sea captain Joel Römpötti, Miss Maria Tulikoura, tailor Albert Suomi and Armas LiljanderAfter them, the property passed to Warvara Schantin and he is the most famous of the owners.

Schantin stood in the early morning and late evening with her wheat cart in front of the officer's school for two decades. Warvara was born on November 10, 1870 in Hamina, where her family had been for at least a couple of generations. During the original Cadet School, she earned a living as a seamstress for officer families. After Finland gained independence, Warvara gave up her previous job and started selling doughnuts and pies from the Aholainen bakery. First, the buyers were the ensigns of the pioneer regiments, then the pioneers of the Railway Battalion and finally also the students of the RUK. The importance of the bun grandmother was also evident when the ensigns of the reserve who had been to the RUK and returned from the Winter War paid a farewell visit in March 1940. Schantin suddenly fell ill at the end of the same year. He died in this house on March 13, 1941. His friend, a merchant well known to the people of Hamina, Lyyli Aholainen closed Varvara's eyes as she passed from time to eternity. After her death, the house was left to her son Mikhael “Mikko” Schant. The house register, with Warvara's own autograph, says that since 1936, almost 70 permanent residents and tenants have lived in the house. After them, the house was acquired by Irja ja Veikko Hirvonen in 1953. The property is still in the possession of the same family.

WEDNESDAY 29.7.2026

C) Wikberg House 1891

Vallikatu 6

YARD CONCERT
Wed 29 July at 12:30–13:00 Finnish Defence Forces Conscript Band

Show: Under the Sun, Marjo Jaffe-Pelkonen, open 28.7.-1.8.2026 from 12.30-17.00.
The ryijy has a long history, in the Nordic countries it dates back to the Viking Age. Today's ryijy are prized art textiles. The "Under the Sun" exhibition showcases ryijys made by knotting thread by thread: flowers growing in the shade of the garden as well as lush moss. Welcome!

The neo-Renaissance house located along Vallikatu in Hamina was built by the city vicar Frans Wikberg in 1891, immediately after the new street was completed after the last great fire in Hamina in 1887. Two other buildings of the same style also went up along Vallikatu, of which the one closest to the Market Square was built by the mayor Ivar Alopaeus. The Wikberg house at Vallikatu 6 is the only one still standing. Two separate buildings were initially built on a plot of over 2200 square meters, the main building facing Vallikatu and a smaller residential building facing Eerikinkatu, as well as a large storage building with stables, outbuildings, storage rooms and outdoor rooms on the southern edge of the plot. Three years later, the smaller residential building was attached to the larger one, resulting in a building measuring 575 square meters and 19 residential rooms. The house is a log-framed, oil-painted, vertically and horizontally planked, neo-renaissance building with a clean style, originally covered with asphalt felt. In the first decades, the house was mainly inhabited by Swedish-speaking civil servants from Hamina and their families, most of whom were tenants in the house. For example, Mayor Alopaeus, who owned the house from 1904 to 1910, never lived in the house himself. The Wikberg house was owned by private individuals until 1918, when it was first owned by a housing association. Housing associations of two to four owners owned the house until 1980, when the last owners sold the house to the City of Hamina as a rental house. In 1991, the house was transferred from the city to the Civil Engineering Office Toikka & Kni and then to Insinöörivoima and Polar, until it returned to private ownership in 1998. The house is currently owned by Asunto Oy Hamina Tintintuva. Over 400 people have lived in the Wikberg house over the course of 131 years. In the early 1900th century, the Swedish-speaking civil servants were replaced by Finnish-speaking masters and entrepreneurs from various fields, and later by ordinary workers. The large rooms in the house were divided into smaller ones and the tenants generally accommodated young people who came from the countryside to study or work in Hamina. Helping young students was particularly important to those who lived in the house before and during the war. Hulda ja Emil Pakkala and the sawmill owner Vihtori YrjönenThe house, including the plot and storage buildings, is currently owned by eight private individuals. Source: Talo Vallikadulla -book, Marja Manninen, 2021

D) Favre House 1843 / 1883

Raatihuoneenkatu 3

YARD CONCERT
Wed 29 July at 4:30–5:00 PM MPK Southeast Finland Orchestra

The first information about the history of the plot can be found in the late 1700th century, when it was owned by Peter KiseleffHe sold it in 1830, unbuilt, to a Turku resident. Ivan Kiseleff. He in turn sold the plot to a bookbinder Carl Haegert and his wife Anna, who built the first part of the current main building in 1843. The family experienced a great tragedy in August 1853, when two sons and the father of the family died of cholera within four days. After the father's death, a daughter was born to the family in early 1854, but she died the same year at the age of 7 months. The bookbinder's widow Anna Haegert and child Carl Witalis Haegert lived in the house until 1858. In 1859 the house was bought by the ladies of Poitsila Manor Elizabeth ja Ulrika BruunElisabeth lived in the house after her sister's death until 1883, when the property was purchased by a Swiss-born French lecturer at the Cadet School. Jules Favre with his wife Amalia. Favre was an energetic man and he expanded and renovated the main building to its current late Empire style. The clapboards and windows of the house date from that period and the stone foundation of the main building shows the boundary of the extension. In the same year, a new courtyard building was also built, which housed a wooden shed, outbuildings, a stable and a carriage house, as well as a completely new servants' hut. The gate was also moved to its current location. In 1889, the house was bought by a sawmill owner Gustav Herman Bjornström and his wife Olga MariaThe family included four adult daughters and a son. Jacob, who later became an Olympic medalist in sailing in 1912. From 1916 onwards, the house was owned by a primary school teacher Vilkku Joukahainen, Hanna with his wife. Joukahainen was a versatile and active person. In addition to teaching, he edited several magazines, wrote poems, plays and fairy tales. His most famous poem is probably "On hanget korkeat, nietokset", which Sibelius composed as a Christmas carol. Politically active, Joukahainen served as a member of parliament and minister in 1917-25. Businessman Nestori Tulikoura owned the house from 1927 to 1936. During his time, the courtyard building was expanded to its current form. The property passed into the possession of the current owner family in 36, when Evi ja Vihtori Ahola moved into the house with their families. At that time, there were three apartments in this courtyard and sometimes families could have tenants, including schoolchildren in the winter. Water, sewage and indoor toilets were installed in the main building in 1954 and at the same time a handsome well was removed from the yard. The apple tree growing there is still called the “well tree”. The piglets, which were kept in a pen in the corner of the pen waiting for Christmas, are associated with the wooden shed. Sometimes one of them would run away to the city and the police would call Ahola: “That pig is sitting on the steps of Vehkalahti church again!” The garden is still the heart of this property and the large apple trees in the yard date from the early 1900th century. Other traditional plants can also be found in the yard from the previous owners.

E) Strömberg / Sala House 1841

Pikuykumyräkatu 30 A

YARD CONCERT
Wed 29 July at 5:30–6:00 PM MPK Savo-Karjala Orchestra Brass Quartet

The house known today as Sala House was built in 1841. The following year, a outdoor storage room that has recently been demolished. Laundry room was completed around 1900. The extension to the residential building was completed in 1909.

Before the Sala family, the house had several owners, such as shipowner Carl Gustaf Haimelin together with his wife Stiina Sofia (1905 -13) and deputy judge Werner Mérus with his wife Ester (1913 -19). Shoemaker Eero Sala and his family moved into the house in 1919. He had received the right to practice the shoemaker's profession a year earlier. This house offered the opportunity to both work and store the necessary materials and tools. The family's daughter Impi was born in 1907 and she lived in the house until 1980. Eero Sala died in 1951 and his wife Fanny in 1964. The Sala family has lived in the house the longest, over 60 years. The current owners bought the house in the early winter of 2015. The interior of the building has been renovated over time and all that remains of the original interior is four old stoves that are still in working order. A large number of wooden shoe lasts belonging to shoemaker Sala were found in the demolished yard storage, which have now been carefully collected. The yard storage was a long, tall and narrow log building. Unfortunately, its foundations had failed and the walls had begun to collapse, threatening to partially collapse onto the neighbor's plot. The plans are to build a new yard building on the same site and to repair the old buildings using traditional materials and methods.

THURSDAY 30.7.2026

F) Galitzin's merchant mansion 1870

Raatihuoneenkatu 2

YARD CONCERT
Thu 30.7. at 12.30-13.00 Navy Band

According to the old shoe shop, the house known as “Korttila kulma” was called “Vinkelitalo” in the 1800th century. The building continued in one piece from Rauhankatu through Raatihuoneentori all the way to Raatihuoneenkatu, which leads to the Bastion. The house was built by a merchant Konstantin Druschinin 1841 strategically located in Hamina's best shopping area. On Raatihuonekankatu, then Narinkakatu, there was a bazaar-like market hall with covered stalls. Later, the street was renamed Kauppiankatu. The original house was destroyed in a fire that was described as arson on the night before Good Friday in 1862. The current house was built according to the old model. The actual shopping rooms were located on the Raatihuoneentori side. Behind the iron door just around the corner, stairs descend to the old wine cellar. As you walk towards Hamina Bastion, the next door, in turn, hides a shoemaker's workshop, where Teodor Korttila made and repaired shoes at the beginning of his career. “The story goes that in the 1910s, Cossacks liked to have their boots repaired at Teodor’s brick-and-mortar shop, because from there they could easily sneak into the wine cellar with their socks on to wait for the shoes to be made.” The courtyard of the house is typical of an 1840s merchant’s house. The stable building, harness room and carriage sheds, and the courtyard house bordering Raatihuoneenkatu form a closed courtyard. It served both as a reception area for merchandise and as a regular home courtyard teeming with life.

G) Römpöt House 1826

Little Circle Street 13 B

YARD CONCERT
Thu 30.7. at 16:30-17:00 Swiss Army Central Band, Switzerland

In the courtyard: Bread bar – Sourdough and archipelago bread for sale.

The Empire-style house dates back to 1826 and was owned by a sea captain. Johan Römpötti. The number of yard buildings increased by three by the middle of the century, when the log barn, the granny's cottage and the current wing were built. The wing was connected to the main building in the 1890s and the original windows of the house were given their current shape with their stone sills. In the 1930s, the house was transferred from the Römpöt family to the ownership of the Hamina Evangelical Lutheran parish as a parish and club house. The Finnish Salvation Army Foundation bought the house from the parish in 1960. At that time, the house also had two residential apartments, an officer's apartment in the main building itself and a caretaker's apartment in the wing. In addition, tenants lived in the granny's cottage in the yard. The building was transferred to the current owner in 1985. The house underwent extensive renovations, both externally and internally, in 1985-86. The old room layout has been preserved, the main entrance has been renovated and a sauna has been added to the wing of the building. The building still has one vertical furnace to support the new heating system. The building's old windows have mostly been preserved and renovated.

FRIDAY 31.7.2026

H) Arvilommi House (Cajander) 1849

Little Circle Street 26

YARD CONCERT
Fri 31 July at 12:30-13:00 Finnish Defence Forces Conscript Band

In the yard of the Arvilommi house, there is the Southern Kymenlaakso Animal Welfare Association and Hamina's smallest outdoor "Puucee-kirppis" / charity flea market.

Art exhibition: Artist Liisi Myllykangas' art exhibition Väreilyä (Vibrates) in the "gallery" of the Arvilomm house.

The Arvilommi house was built in 1847. The plot previously housed, among other things, the church of the Pskov Regiment, which was demolished before the 1790s. The surface of the log house is plastered and represents a rare neo-rococo style in Finland. The courtyard building still contains a stable for five horses, an outdoor shed, a manure shed, a hayloft, cart sheds and an old ice cellar. At the Rauhankatu end of the house, among other things, Hamina's first pharmacy (as a pharmacist) was located. Alfons Nymalm). The house has also hosted district courts and a district judge. Karsten's led by. A scene from the movie "Headquarters" (1970), where Lotta starred Tamara Lund, was filmed in this house. After the armistice, only one Estonian-Finnish boy avoided being returned to the Soviet Union. He is said to have hidden in the high stone pillar of the house, even though a VALPO detective lived almost opposite. The name Arvilomm house comes from the 1930s, when a land surveying engineer JW Arvilommi bought it. After that, it remained in the family until the 1980s. Today, the house is a home for two families.

I) Lebedeff's merchant mansion 1843

Town Hall Square 14

YARD CONCERT
Fri 31.7. 16:30-17:00 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pipes (RCMP) and Drums, Canada

Show: Ritva Koverola's iconic exhibition in the courtyard's vaulted cellar

LEBEDEFF HOUSE
Shipowner and merchant Andrei Lebedeff built a wooden Empire-style residential building on Kirkkokatu in 1843. The building had one hall, eight chambers, a kitchen, two hallways with stairs and a vaulted cellar. In addition to his wife and servants, Lebedeff's family at that time included six children of his own, three sons, three daughters and one stepdaughter. The building has functioned as a residential building with relatively minor changes to this day. In the early 1900th century, three glass porches were added to the building, and the part of the building facing the Town Hall was separated into commercial premises and a separate entrance was opened at the end. Several companies have operated in the commercial premises, such as the fabric and clothing store P.Wetuschenko Oy and the watchmaker Räsänen.

SHOPPING ROOM AND COURTYARD
Andrei Lebedeff owned two schooners from the Hamina merchant fleet and, when business picked up in 1845, he had an Empire-style wooden shop built on his plot, opposite the Town Hall. The building had five rooms: a large trinket shop and four separate chambers. In the early 1900th century, a glass veranda was added to the building on the courtyard side and the room divisions and the facade on the market square were changed according to needs. In the 1930s, the business premises were divided into three independent apartments; there were separate entrances from the market square to the hat shop, chemical shop and stationery shop, while the back rooms sometimes also served as apartments. The building still functions as a business premises. The courtyard was a central part of the business manor's operations. It served as a warehouse, a small market square and a place to store vehicles, and part of it also served as a utility garden. In addition to the residential building and the shop, the courtyard area included several log barns and storage buildings, several of which have survived under a changed appearance.

SATURDAY 1.8.2026

J) Bergqvist's house 1841 / 1847

Little Circle Street 4

YARD CONCERT
Sat 1.8. 12:30–13:00 Royal Swedish Navy Band, Sweden

Show: In the basement of the Bergqvist house, there are oil paintings and textile works with maritime themes. In the courtyard, you can navigate according to the nautical markers under the watchful eye of wood storks. Works by Eija Ylinen-Virtanen.

“Pörkin talo”, the “butcher’s house”, was built in 1841–42 and is located in the merchant’s quarter. There were numerous shops on the street in the early decades of the 1900th century. The name of the house comes from the merchant From Lennart Bergqvist, who bought the house in 1907. In addition to the butcher Bergqvist, the merchant Jaffe and E.M. Pitkänen. In 1910, the two-part building was combined into one house. During the Winter War, the house was bombed and the middle part had to be rebuilt. The building has been used by, among others, the Salvation Army, the Pentecostal Church and the game management association. During the renovation, the premises of the main building were converted into modern living spaces in 1984. Today, five families live permanently in the courtyard, and in addition to these, a couple of commercial apartments operate on the premises. The cobblestones in the courtyard and the meat hooks in the basement are reminders of a bygone era.

K) Borgman House 1848

Little Circle Street 19

NOTE! The courtyard is only open during the concert.

YARD CONCERT
Sat 1.8. 4:30–5:00 PM Swiss Army Central Band, Switzerland

The plot has remained largely the same in appearance for a couple of centuries. The buildings on it apparently burned down in the great fires of 1821 and 1840, but the buildings on this plot were spared from the great fire of 1887. The plot was owned in 1790 by a bourgeois of Russian descent. Vasily Kiselev (Kiseleff), who also owned a brickyard near Mullinkoski. The other part of the plot was owned by the staff surgeon Green's (Gryn) widow. In the years 1832–1872, the land was inhabited by, among others, a master carpenter Anders Borgman with his family. The plot was taken by the city council Esaias Niemelä (1810–1886) in 1872 and later the plot was inherited by his son, an agronomist and economic advisor Esaias Evert Niemelä (1873-1951). In 1982 the plot returned to the same family, as the lady of the current owner family is a direct descendant of the aforementioned family. (Esaias: great-grandfather, Esaias Evert: grandfather) The current main building dates back to 1848. There is also a vaulted cellar from the 1700th century on the plot. Changes have been made to both the main and side buildings over time, including the placement of the windows and doors in the main building. The previous building was built in 1822 (destroyed in the great fire of 1840) and was painted with green oil paint. This building contained a porch, one larger and one smaller hall, five chambers, two kitchens and one storeroom. Each window frame had four windows and the house also had four chimneys. In addition, the plot had an outbuilding built in 1824, a cellar, a baker's room, a stable, a shed, a shed, an animal shelter, a tool shed and a barn. A glimpse into history is provided by the stamp on the floor brick of the old vaulted cellar, as well as the 1700th-century Swedish copper coin found in the yard, and a special late-1700th-century bronze ring with a dome monogram.

L) Fincke House 1835

Little Circle Street 15

The yard is open. There will be no concert in the yard.

Pop-up restaurant: Tapas and sangria

The house was built in 1838 for the merchant Shukoff family. In the 1850s, the property was transferred to the ownership of goldsmith Johan F. Fincke, and the strong goldsmithing traditions continued for many decades.

Toivo and Bertta Paukkunen, merchants from Isthmus Karelia who had left Koivisto, bought the house in 1945 and moved in with their children Eino, Vieno, Aune and Kyllik. They ran a shop there for a short time, including a flower shop. Later, Toivo opened a general store in the old market hall of Hamina.

There were also tenants living in the house and a bakery in the yard. The Helmi photography studio also operated in the house for a few years. In 1947, the house was renovated and, among other things, the windows and the exterior siding were replaced in the style of the 50s.

Separate, interconnected buildings border the plot and the courtyard is shaped like an atrium. The courtyard contains various buildings from 1853–1899, such as a shed, barn, laundry room, sauna, shed and a tiled-roofed cellar. During Berta's time, roses bloomed in the courtyard and passersby admired the splendor of the flowers.