Haapavesi – Finland's "Great Hunger Years" Memorials

Haapavesi, like many Finnish municipalities, was founded on the eve of the Great Hunger Years. With such calamitous mortality (approximately 20% in 1868) in the years immediately after its foundation (and indeed dearth and crisis in the years leading up to it, as per this newspaper article from 1865), it seemed like a place that might have a memorial. However, I was unable to visit before the publication of the Sesquicentennial Report, and nor did I uncover any secondary sources which would have proved the existence of a famine memorial. In March 2017, however, Anu Koivunen’s Kirjava historia blog published an interesting and wide-ranging account of the the “Hunger Years in Haapavesi” (in Finnish). Alongside material from manuscript sources and local newspapers, Anu also published a photograph of Haapavesi’s memorial to those who had died from hunger, erected in 1963. From this photo I was able to compare with other images – as well as check Google Earth, where it is visible from the road – and see that the memorial was outside the bell-tower of the main church in the town.

On 5th July 2017, I travelled to Haapavesi and other sites in Ostrobothnia. The immediate reaction on reaching Haapavesi Church is the architectural contrast between the actual church and the bell-tower. The church was built in the 1980s, after the previous building was destroyed in a fire (May 1981). Standing separately from the main church building (the outline of which remains as a garden of reflection), the bell-tower, dating from 1751, was spared destruction. Unlike some other sites, the famine memorial was very easy to spot in Haapavesi, and is very distinctive in its form – an irregular stone placed atop a millstone, with a plaque. The millstone is a regular feature in Finnish famine memorials, occurring in four or five instances (e.g. Sonkajärvi, Evijärvi, Ilmajoki).

Location: Haapavesi Church, off Tähtelänkuja. Directly outside the bell-tower.

Parish: Haapavesi.

Modern Region: Northern Ostrobothnia (Pohjois-Pohjanmaa)

Date of Memorial: 1963

Inscription: “Thanking God for Our Daily Bread: erected by the people of Haapavesi in recognition of its 100th anniversary. 1963.”

References:

Anu Koivunen, “Nälkävuodet Haapavedellä”, Kirjava historia (accessed March 2017)

Leino Pentzin, “1867-68 Katovuodesta Haapaveden Pitäjässä”, Jouko (1914), pp. 161-81.

“Haapaveden Kirkko”, Kirjastovirma (accessed March 2017)

Oulun Wiikko-Sanomia, 17 Jun. 1865.