Alvettulan, Hyömäen, Matkantaan ja Tuittulan ryhmäkylät

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

The group villages of Alvettula, Hyömäki, Matkantaa and Tuittula differ in their historical development and location, and have passed through different stages in the development of village structure. All the villages retain building stock typical of the strata they represent. Fields surrounding the villages in Tavastia have been cultivated for hundreds of years, possibly since prehistoric times. The village road network has preserved its historical alignment.

The villages represent the group-village type common in Tavastia, based on peasant land ownership, in which the parent farms (kantatila) are oriented along the village street (raitti) that runs through the village. The present building stock dates mainly from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The 19th-century mäkitupalaisasumukset are clearly separate, on their own hill areas or on land poorly suited to cultivation, as a continuation of the village site.

The Isojako and the subsequent supplementary divisions strongly reshaped the structure of the old group villages from the second half of the 18th century to the early 20th century.

Several prehistoric and historical-period ancient remains in the village area tell of the long settlement history of Alvettula. From the Middle Ages onwards there has been settlement in Alvettula. After the Isojako, the peasant farmhouses left along the river bank, and the group formed by their farmyards, together with the road network and the surrounding old fields, resemble a compact village site. A compact village centre with its school and society and workers' buildings has grown along the village street on a hill over the last hundred years, supplementing the earlier settlement of landless population. The continuity of land use is visible in the basic structure of the village, although the building stock on the farms that remained in place has been renewed over the last hundred years.

As the farms concentrated on the riverbank village site, the more stony hillsides became areas for crofters and workers' housing. Small-scale dwellings are still located outside the old village site.

The village, which is in a centrally located position on the road network, has acquired services along the highway since the late 19th century. Two 1950s buildings stand in the vicinity of the village shop: a savings bank and a merchant's house. The school and the village's other meeting places, namely the society house and the workers' hall, are in the centre of the village. New residential areas lie as independent areas beyond the fields surrounding the village.

The Alvettula Bridge is located where the historical highway crosses the Alvettulanjoki, which connects Hauhonselkä and Ilmoilanselkä. Built in the 1910s, the bridge is a two-span, concrete three-hinged arch bridge, 5 m wide, with clear spans of 27.2 m. It is one of the oldest reinforced concrete bridges in Finland.

The farms of Hyömäki are concentrated along the village street on the slopes of a hill, at the edges of the fields. The farmsteads were formed after the new partition in the 1930s. Along the narrow roads of the village there are old hill-cottar dwellings, many of which have been renewed and a few of which stand abandoned. The village has become considerably more open since the early 20th century. New construction has concentrated outside the actual main village. The village has retained the character of an old group village and its small-scale milieu. The cup-marked stones and Iron Age graves in the village attest to the long-standing habitation.

The present compact village site of Tuittula has been settled since the 17th century. Three cup-marked stones in the village tell of the prehistoric period. The village building stock consists of large farm main and outbuildings concentrated around the village street, together with the village shop. Pyramid-faced concrete brick has often been used as a building material in the outbuildings. Some of the parent farms moved outside the village in the early 20th century. The former area of landless population has retained its characteristic features. The village, with its extensive fields, forms part of the cultural environment of Hahkiala manor.

The small village of Matkantaa lies in the promontory of Matkantaanselkä, in the middle of fields. The village farmsteads are in one group along the village street. The building stock dates largely from the 19th century and the early 20th century. The main buildings of the farms are large peasant farmhouses, and their yards contain old log and clay-brick outbuildings.

The villages of Alvettula, Hyömäki, Matkantaa and Tuittula form part of the Hauhonselkä Cultural Landscapes landscape area, which is of national significance.

History

The cup-marked stones known from the vicinity of the Hauho group villages, which were built alongside waterways, show that settlement and cultivation date back to the Iron Age.

The oldest traces of settlement in Alvettula date from the Stone Age. The village is first mentioned in written sources in 1431. In the early modern period the village had 9 farms. The village's oldest residential area, the village site (kylätontti), lies on the south bank of the river. The compact village loosened as a result of the general partition (isojako). Small cottar dwellings (mäkitupalaisasumukset) with one or two rooms were built, for the most part on the hill area belonging to Tapola farm, at the end of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century. The plots were separated as independent holdings in the early 1920s. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 10 mäkitupa.

According to oral tradition, the first bridge across the Alvettulanjoki river was a floating bridge supported by the water, known as the so-called Jalkavaha bridge. In 1765 the governor of Uusimaa and Häme Province ordered the district court to build a bridge at the site. A similar building obligation was imposed again in 1828. The bridge was found to be in poor condition in 1910, and the Turun Rautabetoni-Valimo was commissioned to build a new bridge. The bridge was designed by engineer Wäinö Wuolio and was built, according to the Tapani method, from large hollow concrete blocks. The construction of the bridge was paid for by the road shareholders, with the help of a couple of substantial grants. The bridge was completed in 1916.

A market was held at the bridgehead of Alvettula in the early 20th century. The new Alvettula bridge was completed beside the old bridge in 1974, and the old bridge was saved from demolition through the active work of the village committee. It was restored as a museum bridge in 1978.

The village of Hyömäki was formed in the Middle Ages from two villages, Hyömäki and Nurmi, which together had 18 farms. The core of the main village of Hyömäki has been Hyömäki Manor, or the Iso-Kourula säteriratsutila, founded in the first half of the 17th century. The village's old village site lies on the south slope of the hill in the direction of Nisula. Hyömäki village burned in the 1710s, after which, after which settlement moved from the shore up onto the hill.

Tuittula village was originally located further north, on the south side of the Hyvikkälä and Kirrinen lakes. It is said that the village burned and a new village was built on its present site in the 17th century. In connection with the partition proceedings of the 1890s, some of the village's farms were moved outside the group village.

Matkanta village is mentioned in written sources in 1413. The village's present settlement has remained a compact group on the same site for centuries, on a promontory bordered by the lake. The village also has a badly destroyed Stone Age settlement site.