Vanaja is a former municipality of

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. It was located in Häme Province about north of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. 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 historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and early

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

settlement found opposite to the Häme Castle. The municipality bordered

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; ; ; or ''Croneburgum'') is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Kanta-Häme. It is located in the southern interior of the country and on the shores of Vanajavesi, Lake Vanajavesi. The population of Hämeenlinna is appr ...

, Hattula, Hauho, Tuulos, Lammi,

Janakkala Janakkala () is a municipality of Finland. Its administrative centre is in Turenki. Janakkala is located along Highway 3 ( E12) in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Tavastia Proper region. To the south, Janakkala shares a bo ...

and Renko. Before 1948, it bordered Hämeenlinnan maalaiskunta instead of Hattula.

History

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 ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

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:

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, is a Nordic countries, 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 count ...

. 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.

Vanaja afterwards

Vanaja () parish was first mentioned in 1324, 13 years after the Novgorod invasion. The Vanaja parish used to cover all of the area around the Häme castle. The administrative division was also known as ''Mäskälä'' after the village of Mäskälä. The town of

was established in 1639 around the castle. The two had separate parishes until they were merged in 1803, being separated again in 1904. At the same time, the territories of the Hämeenlinna parish that were not parts of the town itself became Hämeenlinnan maalaiskunta, which in 1948 was divided between Hämeenlinna, Vanaja and Renko. Vanaja was divided between

, Renko and Hattula in 1967. Most of the municipality is now part of Hämeenlinna, as Renko was merged into Hämeenlinna in 2009. 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

{{Authority control Former municipalities of Finland Medieval Finland Archaeological sites in Finland History of Kanta-Häme Hämeenlinna Hattula Janakkala Former populated places in Finland