Vanaja is a former municipality of

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. It was located in Tavastia Proper about north of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. It is also speculated that it might have been the name for an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

and early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

settlement found opposite to the Häme Castle.

Iron Age Finnish settlement

Vanaja is a name commonly used about the excavation site of an Iron Age settlement in central Tavastia,

, opposite to the later Häme Castle in Varikonniemi. According to some interpretations it was a proto-urban settlement, but this is contested. The settlement existed roughly during the 6th to 13th centuries. It is possibly the "town of Vanai" mentioned once in a

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ...

chronicle that describes how it was destroyed by Novgorodian forces in 1311 CE. It has been suggested that the site was abandoned after the attack. As another possible result from the war, the present-day Häme Castle was built on the opposite shore of the Vanajavesi lake soon (some researchers, however, have dated the earliest building phase of the castle to the late 13th century). It took however more than 300 years before there was a town next to it again:

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; sv, Tavastehus; krl, Hämienlinna; la, Tavastum or ''Croneburgum'') is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Tavastia and the modern province of Kanta-Häme in the south of ...

was established 1639. According to preliminary estimations, the site was about hectares making it about half the size of the Björkö settlement in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. Excavations have so far covered only a small fraction of the area, and its nature as a town-like settlement or just an ordinary rural site has been disputed. The site was found in 1986.Suomen Museo 99 (1992). . Schulz, E.-L., & Schulz, H.-P., 1993: ''Hämeenlinna Varikkoniemi – eine späteisenzeitliche – frühmittelalterliche Kernsiedlung in Häme. Die Ausgrabungen 1986–1990 (Mit einem Beitrag von Georg Haggren) (Yhteenveto: Hämeenlinnan Varikkoniemen kaivaukset)''. See pp. 41–85. Kankainen, T., Lempiäinen, T., & Vuorela, I., 1993: ''Die Siedlungsgeschichte und Umweltentwicklung von Hämeenlinna Varikkoniemi im Lichte archäometrischer Untersuchungen.'' See pp. 87–107. The book can be ordered from th
Finnish Antiquarian Society

Vanaja afterwards

Vanaja ( sv, Vånå) parish was first mentioned in 1324, 13 years after the Novgorod invasion. Vanaja municipality used to cover all the area around the Häme castle, but eventually it diminished in size and was finally divided between

, Janakkala,

Renko Renko is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with Hämeenlinna on 2009-01-01. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Tavastia Proper region. The municipality had a population of 2,378 (30 November ...

and Hattula in 1967. The most of the municipality is now part of Hämeenlinna. The medieval church of Vanaja is located about south-east of the Iron Age settlement, on a cape, that may have served as the local place of sacrifice. The oldest Swedish name (Vaan-ö) of the municipality probably originated from the name of the cape, which during springtime floods used to be an island. There was an episcopal manor nearby in the 14th and 15th century.

References

{{Coord, 61, 00, 13, N, 024, 28, 10, E, type:landmark_region:FI-ES, display=title Former municipalities of Finland Medieval Finland Archaeological sites in Finland History of Kanta-Häme Hämeenlinna Hattula Janakkala Former populated places in Finland