Turku 1000
Stop 2 of 50
1150s–1229

Cross, crusade and a bishop on the river

In a few generations the Aura valley turns Christian and gets a bishop. How it happened is a mix of documents, digs — and one very good story.

Crusade era · Romanesque
The big story

From legend to Koroinen

Between about 1150 and 1300, Southwest Finland changes religion, gets a bishop and is pulled into the Swedish kingdom. It was not one event — it happened in many small steps, and some of them we can only guess at.

Three forces pulling at Finland

  • The Church in Rome wants to convert the last non-Christian peoples of northern Europe — by preaching, and if necessary by crusade.
  • The Swedish kings want land, taxes and control of the trade routes across the Baltic.
  • Novgorod, a rich Orthodox Christian trading republic, has its own interests in Karelia and Häme, and its own missionaries.

Southwest Finland, rich and close to Sweden, ends up on the Catholic, Swedish side of this tug-of-war. That choice shapes the next 600 years — from the language of the law to the shape of the churches.

First churches

Christianity did not arrive with a single army. Christian-style graves appear in the 1000s, and in 2013 archaeologists found the remains of a small wooden church at Ravattula in Kaarina, just outside Turku. It was probably built in the second half of the 1100s — the oldest church remains known in Finland — and its fenced churchyard may hold up to 200 graves Likely.

The bishop on the move

  • The first bishops of Finland probably had no fixed home and travelled around their diocese.
  • An early centre was Nousiainen, north of Turku. The first bishop we know by name, Thomas, wrote a letter there in 1234 Well documented.
  • In 1229 Pope Gregory IX gives the bishop permission to move his seat to a more suitable place, to take over pagan holy groves and to block Russian traders Well documented.
  • The new place was Koroinen, a point of land on the Aura river. When the move really happened is debated — perhaps around the middle of the century Debated.
  • At Koroinen a large wooden church on stone foundations, a bishop’s residence and a cemetery grow up. In 1300 the bishop moves again — into the new town and its cathedral.
  • A market as well. Most of the 1200s coins found in the Aura valley come from Koroinen and the Vanhalinna hillfort, 53 of them from Gotland, together with pottery from Germany. Archaeologists think Koroinen also had a marketplace Likely.
How do we know?

For this period we have three kinds of evidence: a handful of papal letters, archaeological digs, and legends written down much later. They don’t always agree. Use the timeline below to see which story rests on which kind of evidence.

✶✉⛏M 1000MC 1100MCC 1200MCCC 1300next: the town and its cathedral⛏1000s✶1155✶1156✉1171/72⛏1100s✉1229✉1234⛏1200s✉1238? 1249?

Tap a medallion to see the evidence.

Archaeology, documents or legend? Filter the evidence for 1000–1300.Dates for legends are the traditional ones.
A bishop with a dark secret

Bishop Thomas did not end well. In 1245 he resigned after confessing to serious crimes — including torture that caused a man’s death and forging a letter from the Pope. He died in Visby on Gotland three years later Well documented.

Why it matters

The Church brought writing, Latin and a European network to Finland: the first documents about the region are papal letters. The move to Koroinen put the bishop on the Aura river — and the town of Turku grew up right next to him. The year 1229 is still often treated as Turku’s birthday, and Turku is still the seat of the Archbishop of Finland.

On the lighter side

The legend of Bishop Henry and Lalli

Every country likes a founding story. Finland’s has a saint, a farmer on skis, an axe — and a hat that takes your scalp off.

  • Henry is said to be an Englishman who became bishop of Uppsala in Sweden. His Latin legend was written down in the 1290s, about 140 years after the events it describes.
  • Lalli is the legend’s villain — and for many Finns today, a bit of a folk anti-hero: the local man who stood up to a foreign bishop.
  • The story was told in two versions: the Church’s Latin legend and a Finnish folk poem, Piispa Henrikin surmavirsi. They take different sides.
  • Two Henry’s Days. The diocese of Turku celebrated Henry on 20 January (“winter Henry”) and on 18 June (“summer Henry”), the day his relics were moved into the Cathedral in 1300. After the Reformation the Finnish calendar settled on 19 January, seen in folk tradition as the middle of winter.
  • Holy water. Tradition says Henry baptised the first Finns at the Kupittaa spring in Turku. In 1649 a student wrote that young people still made offerings and lit fires there at Midsummer — until the town guards stopped them.
Legend is not the same as lie

A legend may not tell us what happened, but it shows what people believed and wanted to remember. A saint’s story gave the new Finnish church a hero, a grave to visit and relics to show pilgrims. That is history too.

  1. I

    c. 1155 · The voyage

    King Eric of Sweden and Bishop Henry, said to be born in England, sail to Finland on a crusade. After the fighting, Eric goes home but Henry stays behind to baptise people — tradition says at the Kupittaa spring in Turku.

  2. II

    Winter · Lalli’s farm

    Travelling across his diocese in winter, Henry stops at a farm in Köyliö. The master, Lalli, is away. Henry’s party takes food for themselves and hay for the horses.

  3. III

    On the ice of Lake Köyliö

    Lalli skis after the bishop and kills him with an axe on the frozen lake — traditionally on 20 January 1156.

  4. !IV

    The mitre and the raven

    Lalli takes the bishop’s mitre and ring. At home, when he pulls off the mitre, his scalp comes off with it. In spring the bishop’s lost finger, still wearing the ring, is found frozen in a block of ice that has not melted — a raven croaking above it shows the place.

The legend in four panels. Turn each panel to see what historians say.Drawn in the style of a Romanesque manuscript.

Sources and further reading

  1. Immonen, V., Kinnunen, J. & Harjula, J. (2021). At the fringes of urbanisation: a socio-economic model of founding of the town of Turku, c. 1300. ZAM 49, 217–234.
  2. Linna, M. (ed.) (1989). Suomen varhaiskeskiajan lähteitä. Historian Aitta XXI.
  3. Heikkilä, T. (2005). Pyhän Henrikin legenda. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
  4. Ruohonen, J. (2022). Built of Wood and Turned to Soil — Finland’s oldest churches with reference to Ristimäki in Ravattula. Iskos 26.
  5. Haggrén, G. et al. (2015). Muinaisuutemme jäljet. Gaudeamus.
  6. Diocese of Åbo (Turku) — history and the 1229 letters.
  7. Medieval Nordic saints wiki (University of Bergen) — Sanctus Henricus.
  8. Yle — on the 1229 tradition and Turku’s founding date.
  9. City of Turku — History of Kupittaa Park.

Spotted a mistake? Know more?

This site is open and free. Corrections and additions are welcome — every page lists its sources so you can check them.