A new life for Brahelinna Manor

Brahelinna castle was founded by count Per Brahe in Ristiina, Southern Savo, in 1649. After the Great Northern War (1700-1721) the castle and other buildings were quite a badly ruined. It was time to build a new military mansion house, Brahelinna Manor. The new carolean style building was finished in 1739. The best know host of the manor was Colonel Georg Magnus Sprengtpor-ten, who was a commander of Savo Brigade. His ambition was to start military training in Finland. The first officer courses for Finnish soldiers were held in Brahelinna manor in 1777. After the Finnish War (1808-09) the manor was rent out, part of the time it was the head of the constabu-lary. From 1951 to 1991 the manor was part of the rural homemaking school. And after that it was occupied by Ristiina municipality. The last users left the building in 2011.



Many citizens and organizations in Ristiina have been worried about circumstances of the manor: how to maintain that very rare and valuable big building? Some actions (basic reparations, a short invention) have already been done by city of Mikkeli and voluntary people of Ristiina. This was a good basis for a developing project, which was planned by all those local organizations with city of Mikkeli and University of Helsinki, Ruralia Institute. There are three main tasks in the “Sotku” project:
1. to make a comprehensive invention and archive research,
2. to make an operation plan (what kind of actions there will be in the Brahelinna manor in the future) and
3. to map out possible source of funding for restoration and construction work of the manor. The project is financed by local action group, Veej’jakaja from European Rural Development fund. The project has start at October 2015 and will end at December 2016.