To better cope with the cold weather, I took a road trip to see the Kostia stream (Kostianvirta) at Pälkäne, near the city of Tampere. Kostia was a major natural obstacle where the Swedish army set up their defenses during the last stages of Great Northern War in Finland, in the Fall of 1713.
Map of the battle: Wikipedia
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Kostianvirta split the narrow isthmus – it’s about a mile long and is mostly not fordable, although the southern side is relatively shallow. Admiral Fyodor Apraksin led the Russian force of some 15.000 men that was moving north driving the remaining Swedish army away from the important southern coast. The Swedish army was led by General Armfeldt and he had deployed about 3.500 men to protect the northern shore of the stream.
The details of the battle are summarized on the Wikipedia page, so I will not repeat them here. I wanted to see the location with my own eyes as we are designing a game that covers this battle.
I first headed over to the historical Pälkäne Ruined Church as it has been there since about 1495-1505. Only the walls remain and it has now been covered by pretty cool-looking glass roof.
After taking my pictures and a quick walk, I continued to Kostia Fortress located at one of key sites of the fierce fighting that took place in early October, 1713. I think the fortress is just a fancy name given to the historical landmark commemorating the battle and a very nice reconstruction of the Swedish defensive works. They had built a layered timber breastwork along the key locations of the stream. These were sloped towards the water allowing the troops above to fire over their comrades.
Unfortunately, the memorial is not in a good shape at all.
What appears to be part of the original position has been repurposed by the locals.
I strolled towards the area where the stream merges into the lake, but it was private property. The Russian cavalry tried to wade around the small point where the lake wasn’t too deep, but obstacles had been built there. I ended up stopping at a few locations to check out the scenery and was rather surprised to see how high the hills where on the southern side, where Russian artillery was positioned.
Kostia stream today – it was big enough to block a direct frontal assault although it was fordable at a few locations.
This part of the lake is very shallow.
View towards Mälkilä where the Russians landed bypassing the defensive line.