Vuorentaan kartano

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Vuorentaka manor is one of the few castles of stone from the Middle Ages and the 16th century in our country to have survived among the high nobility's castles, and its present appearance dates from a restoration carried out in the 1850s. It forms part of the unique and compact cluster of manors at Halikonlahti in our country, which over the centuries has grown up from the Horn family's medieval manors of Åminne, Viurila and Vuorentaka.

Vuorentaka manor is located at the head of Halikonlahti, next to the Viurila and Joensuu manors. The grey stone part of the main building is probably from the 16th century, but its present historicising appearance took shape in the 1850s, when a brick extension with towers and medieval-inspired details was built. The main building was restored and its fixed interior was conserved in the mid-1990s. The rest of the building stock, which includes two residential buildings, a threshing barn and hay barn, and a cowshed, is mainly from the 19th century.

The manor is located in the Uskela and Halikonjoki river valley landscape area, which is of national importance.

History

Vuorentaka was evidently inhabited already before 1300. It is known to have been a medieval residential manor, and stone buildings belonging to the noble Horn family already existed at Joensuu and Vuorentaka in the 16th century. The medieval stone building at Vuorentaka was repaired in 1648, and that date remained visible on the building's façade until the 1850s. The building stood empty in the second half of the 18th century, and in 1802 it was converted into a grain storehouse. The main building acquired its present appearance as a result of extensive repair and extension work in the mid-1850s. A loggia at the entrance hall was added to the structure in 1892, designed by architect Carl Armfelt.

Vuorentaka was one of the Horn family's estates in Halikko, and its ownership was linked to the Joensuu manor from 1749 to 1800 and to the Viurila manor from 1803 to 1935. In the 19th century the Horn family's landholding was at its greatest, and at that time they owned a third of Halikko's farmland.