Sometimes while traveling the world it is good to look for your own roots and recreate new memories from where you were as a child. As an adult the place and the memories get a whole new perspective.
I remember Raahe along the Finnish Ostrobothnia as a town full of old wooden building streets but not much more. It was also the place where lots of Finnish teachers were educated before the university days, including many of my old family members.
I also remember all the stories about the sea, the fishing fleets and the jokes related to emigration and exploring the foreign countries. Lastly, I remember the presents we used to get.
One such an old present which the seafaring men used to bring as souvenirs to their wives were the porslin dogs from England. If you are walking at Raahe along the pretty old streets, you see them in the windows.
It is possible to interpret the language of these dogs if you know the old stories about the sea. If the dogs look inside, it means that the man of the house is in and you need to give him time to rest and not visit, but if the dogs look outwards, they are waiting for the father of the house (who is at sea) and you can visit to share the long wait.
These kind of dogs were bought to Finland from England during the 19th Century to every port but today they are especially connected with Raahe due to a clever ceramic designer who developed them for tourism along with the old stories.
Some of the original dogs sit nicely at the Raahe Museum's display of the old living room along the afternoon coffee set up.
This dog I found from the Museum of the Northern Ostrobothnia in Oulu about 100 km north of Raahe. The dogs usually come in pairs and are the mirror image of each other,
I went to visit the Raahe Museum as I was gathering information for my Crimean War history project. I wanted to know what had happened in Raahe in 1854 when the English fleet struck the ports of Finland.
In Raahe they burned a lot of ships and destroyed plenty of cargo, including the already paid cargo for the English shores. Apparently, they did not realise how big the trade between Finland and England was then.
There are some very impressive paintings depicting the battle at Raahe, which I found very interesting.
After becoming aware of the destruction in Finland, the compassionate English quakers collected a donation to Finland to aid in the rebuilding of the lives of the people in the towns along the Ostrabothnian shores. Some of this money was given to Raahe to ease the enormous unemployment that followed the war.
The creator of the very fine church art depicting the archangel Uriel and the 300 Century Saint Agneta was a man called Michel Balt. He came to Finland around 1650 and settled in Oulu. He worked in many wooden churches in Finland, including in Turku. Unfortunately, most of his work has been burned. Only the pieces that were in the Raahe church are preserved in their entirety.
For those people interested in church art, Raahe museum is a treasure hunting place. It turns out that while in most European countries the Catholic art was taken down after the Lutheran faith overtook them, this didn't happen in Scandinavia which gives us a possibility to see these lovely pieces at Raahe Museum today.
The most curious thing I found in Raahe is the toy box made by Samuli Sarkkila. It represents the townspeople during the 1920's and -30's. He used to take the box to the markets with him and for a fee tell stories of the townspeople to his audience.
What I remember best about Raahe are the stories my grandfather used to tell. For my great delight I found that the storytelling tradition in Raahe is still there.
I would recommend you go, see and listen for yourselves and make the memories of your own at Raahe town.
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