Kartanoarkkitehtuuri osana Tandefelt-suvun elämäntapaa

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is manor house architecture as part of lifestyle with focus on those estates in Sysmä and Hartola municipalities on the eastern shore of Lake Päijänne in Finland that have, at some point, been owned by the Tandefelt family as of the mid seventeenth century. The Tandefelt family of noble rank has had a dominant position in the area as prominent landowners and possessors of several manor houses. This research is centered on ten estates whose presently existing main buildings have been erected prior to or in the nineteenth century. The lifestyle of the Tandefelt family is approached through a synthesis of architecture and history in order to explore its concrete forms assumed in the estates of the family, and particularly in their main buildings. The synthesis is constituted by an analysis of architectural esthetical, building constructional, culture historical, and socio-historical factors with basis on the prevalent values regulating the class society life of the time. The manor houses included in this research have been constructed of wood, and their architecture has followed the drawings of military administrative houses or has been adopted from other estates. In spite of the outlying location of these manor houses, they have been built according to the latest architectural trends of their time. Plans of new manor houses, as well as renovations, have been architect-designed since the mid-nineteenth century. Public and private spaces have been more distinctly separated particularly in the grander manor houses constructed in the nineteenth century. Interiors of their main buildings have reflected the values of nobility as regards a desire for stately appearances visible in an aspiration for modernity and a hierarchy or rooms. Almost all of the men of the Tandefelt family used to serve in the army until the end of the eighteenth century. After that, following the trend of the time, many of them began to resign from office and settle down to tend their estates full-time. Crucial to this was the crofter institution. Customs and social life of the Tandefelt family remained traditional for a long time in spite of the gradual disintegration of class society in the nineteenth century. This research is the first to explore the Tandefelt family’s manor houses in Sysmä and Hartola to a greater extent. These estates have formed a distinctive community in Eastern Häme similarly to those in Southwest Finland, the Helsinki region and Savo, all of which have their roots in the Swedish manor house culture.