Fanjunkars is a former military croft and a museum in

Siuntio Siuntio (; ) is a municipality in the Uusimaa region of Southern Finland. Its neighboring municipalities are Ingå to the west, Kirkkonummi to the east, Lohja to the north-west, and Vihti to the north. It is west of Helsinki. As of 2021, the p ...

, Finland. The croft is known as a former residence of the national writer of Finland,

Aleksis Kivi Aleksis Kivi (; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish writer who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, '' Seitsemän veljestä'' (''Seven Brothers''), published in 1870. He is also known ...

. Kivi lived in Fanjunkars, which was owned by

Charlotta Lönnqvist Charlotta Maria Lönnqvist (4 February 1815 Siuntio – 27 April 1891 Siuntio) was a Finland, Finnish, Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking cultural personality. She is mainly known as the benefactor of Aleksis Kivi who lived i ...

, between 1864 and 1871 and wrote some of his most famous work there, such as

The Seven Brothers ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

. The name Fanjunkars comes from ''

Fanjunkare Fanjunkare (OR-7) is a Swedish military rank above Översergeant and below Överfanjunkare. The word 'Fanjunkare' is derived from German 'Fahnenjunker', and denotes a standard-bearer, hence 'Colour Sergeant'. History ''Fanjunkare'' means "nob ...

'', an old Swedish military rank. This is due to the fact that Charlotta Lönnqvist's father, Johan Lönnqvist, was a ''Fanjunkare'' in the

Swedish army The Swedish Army () is the army, land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1 ...

. The area of Finland was a part of the

Kingdom of Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area ...

until 1809. Lönnqvist's father was a war veteran and had served during the

Finnish War The Finnish War (; ; ) was fought between the Gustavian era, Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established a ...

in 1808. He owned the croft until 1850.

History

The Old Fanjunkars

Originally Fanjunkars croft was located a few kilometers away from

Sjundby Manor Sjundby Manor (Finnish language, Finnish: ''Sjundbyn kartano'', Swedish language, Swedish: ''Sjundby slott'') is a manor house in Siuntio in Finland. The history of the manor is known from the year 1417. During the 1560s king Gustav I of Sweden' ...

in what is nowadays known as Siuntio station area. Aleksis Kivi lived in Fanjunkars from 1865 to 1871 and completed some of his most important works there. After the death of Charlotta Lönnqvist in 1891 the lands of the croft were merged with two other crofts. In 1900 a small school was opened in Fanjunkars. The first teacher of the school was called Sigrid Liljefors. She was followed by Anna Liljeström in 1904. The school operated in Fanjunkars until 1930 when it was moved to Henriksberget.

The New Fanjunkars

The

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

leased parts of Finland in 1944 after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in accordance to

Moscow Armistice The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of modi ...

between Finland, the

, and the United Kingdom. Vast areas, approximately 30%, of the municipality of Siuntio fell to the leased area of

Porkkala Naval Base Porkkala Naval Base was a Soviet naval base operational from 1944–1956 in the Municipality, municipalities of Kirkkonummi, Ingå and Siuntio on the Porkkala peninsula, 30 kilometers (19 mi) ''west'' of Helsinki, Finland. The area was l ...

, and even Fanjunkars croft was left behind the newly created border between Finland and Soviet Union. Fanjunkars croft was completely destroyed during the lease of the area. A reconstruction of the croft, following the 19th-century style, was erected in Siuntio between 2003 and 2006. Foundation Pro Fanjunkars was founded by Siuntio Municipality, Siuntio Savings Bank Foundation (''Sjundeå Sparbanksstiftelse''), Siuntio Local Heritage Association (''Hembygdens Vänner i Sjundeå'') and the Finnish and Swedish speaking Lutheran parishes of Siuntio (''Sjundeå svenska församling'' and ''Siuntion suomalainen seurakunta'') to safeguard and take care of the new Fanjunkars. The reconstruction works were financed largely by Siuntio Savings Bank Foundation and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

via its local Pomoväst organisation and EU's

Leader programme The community-led local development (CLLD) funding approach is a European Union initiative to support the decentralised management of development projects, primarily in rural, but also in coastal and urban areas, by involving relevant local actor ...

. The

Prime Minister of Finland The prime minister of Finland (; ) is the leader of the Finnish Government. The prime minister and his or her cabinet exercise executive authority in the state. The prime minister is formally ranked third in the protocol after the president ...

Matti Vanhanen Matti Taneli Vanhanen (; born 4 November 1955) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party (Finland), Centre Party in 2006. In his earlier career, he was a journali ...

, officially opened the new Fanjunkars on Aleksis Kivi Day on the 10th of October 2006. The new croft has a museum room which has objects from the old Fanjunkars and objects that belonged to Kivi on display.

References

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