Crude and grey, the oldest of the buildings at Stundars is situated at a distance from the rest of the museum village. And 200 years ago, the soldier probably felt like that, too – an outsider -when he was allotted a small, dismal croft on the worst piece of land the village possessed. Before 1809, when Finland was still a part of the Swedish kingdom, the landowners were obliged to send fully equipped soldiers to the kings’ wars. But when the soldier went to war, it was his wife who took care of the croft. After a hard day’s work, she probably sat at this very window, gazing out into the twilight, wondering if her husband would ever return home… Only a small proportion of the soldiers survived the large military campaigns. The most common cause of death was the many diseases that spread like wildfire in the war camps. And when the news of a soldier’s death finally reached home, his widow knew that she and the children soon had to hand over the croft to a new soldier – or she could marry the new soldier, so they could stay. After all, for a poor woman, staying on the croft meant having the food and shelter needed for survival.
The Soldier’s Cottage
