Echoes and Shadows
Stories from the castle’s past
The new Echoes and Shadows experience at Turku Castle leads visitors centuries into the past, to a time when footsteps echoed through the corridors and conversations filled the halls—conversations of which only fragments remain. This experience forms part of the castle’s major renewal of its main exhibition and unfolds along the route through the medieval keep.
In this new visitor experience, the past emerges in delicate echoes and lingering shadows. It brings to life the people who lived and worked in Turku Castle from the 1300s to the 1600s: ordinary townsfolk, those in power, members of the court, and even individuals known to history by name. Their stories are pieced together from fragmentary sources—slender clues that allow the lives of people long lost to the mists of history to take shape once more as complete narratives.
Encounters with Figures from the Past
Along the route, visitors will encounter figures such as housekeeper Brita Olofsdotter and Sofia Gyllenhielm, the illegitimate daughter of Duke John, and may also come across the likes of resistance leader Jaakko Ilkka or King Gustav Vasa. Within the castle, their shadows appear fleetingly on the walls—brief silhouettes that remind us the past is still present, even if not every face has been preserved.
The Echoes and Shadows experience offers a rich range of information and deepens understanding of Turku Castle’s significance and its inhabitants across the centuries. It continues the ongoing renewal of the castle’s main exhibition: the first part, Crown’s People, opened in December 2023, and the next stages will focus on the castle’s former prison areas and chapels.
Echoes and Shadows invites you to walk through the layers of history. Come and listen to the whispers of the past and glimpse the shadows that briefly emerge before fading once more into the depths of the centuries.