Turku 1000
Stop 17 of 50
1640

Per Brahe and the founding of the Royal Academy

In 1640 Turku gets Finland’s first university, the northernmost in the world. A count who loved the land made it happen, and its first students had their horns sawn off.

Baroque · Great power era
The big story

Per Brahe and the founding of the Royal Academy

In 1640 Turku got Finland’s first university. It was the third in the Swedish realm and, at the time, the northernmost in the world. Much of the credit goes to Count Per Brahe, the governor-general who ran Finland for two terms and gave it a postal service and new towns.

The count who ran Finland

  • A great noble. Per Brahe was born on 18 February 1602 into one of Sweden’s leading noble families. He was governor-general of Finland in 1637–1640 and again in 1648–1654 Well documented.
  • Letters on the move. On 6 September 1638 Brahe set up a postal service in Finland. Today’s Posti counts its history from that day Well documented.
  • New towns. He founded about ten new towns in Finland. One of them, Raahe, is still called Brahestad in Swedish, after him Well documented.
  • “Pleased with the land.” His statue in Turku carries the words “I was well pleased with the land, and the land with me” Likely.

A university for Finland

  • The charter. The Royal Academy of Turku was founded on 26 March 1640, on Brahe’s proposal. Queen Christina was only thirteen, so the regency government granted the charter in her name. Bishop Isaacus Rothovius (stop 16) and Jöns Kurck, president of the Court of Appeal, had also pushed for it Well documented.
  • Third in the realm. It followed Uppsala (1477) and Tartu (1632) and was then the northernmost university in the world Well documented.
  • A grand opening. The Academy was inaugurated on 15 July 1640. It was praised as “God’s greatest good deed since the creation of the world” Well documented.
  • Next to the Cathedral. It grew out of the Cathedral School’s gymnasium (stop 16) and worked inside the wall around the Cathedral Well documented.
  • Eleven professors. Three taught theology, one law, one medicine and six philosophy. Sources give 200 to 250 students in the first year. Teaching was in Latin and Swedish Well documented.
  • What it was for. The Academy was to train priests, officials, doctors and officers. Most of its students became priests Well documented.
  • Privileges. It paid no taxes, did not have to lodge soldiers, had its own court and jail, and could award degrees Well documented.
  • Finland’s first press. In 1642 the printer Peder Walde set up Finland’s first printing press at the Academy Well documented.
How do we know?

The Academy’s own archive from 1640–1828 survives, and its founding is well recorded. Small details still differ between sources: the University of Helsinki gives 250 students in 1640, Turku Cathedral’s history about 200. Even Per Brahe’s day of death in September 1680 is given as the 2nd in one place and the 12th in another.

Click a faculty, the chancellor’s medallion or one of the seals.

REGIA ACADEMIA ABOENSIS · MDCXLTheologyLawMedicinePhilosophy
What the charter gave
Click a door to meet the faculty, the medallion for the chancellor, or a seal for the Academy’s privileges.An imagined building. The Academy worked in the old school buildings inside the Cathedral wall.
Why it matters

For almost two hundred years Turku was where Finland’s priests, judges and doctors were educated. After the Great Fire of 1827 the Academy moved to Helsinki, and it lives on as the University of Helsinki.

On the lighter side

Student life, hazing and nations in the 1600s

The first students in Turku were young, unmarried men, most of them future priests. Before they counted as students at all, they were “de-horned” like animals. After that the Academy and their nation kept a close eye on what they did.

Becoming a student

  • The depositio. At Uppsala every new student had to go through an initiation called the depositio, and Turku followed Uppsala’s model. No description from Turku itself has been found so far Likely.
  • From beast to human. The newcomer wore horns, donkey ears and boar’s tusks. Older students removed them with a saw, tongs and a plane, then gave him salt and poured wine over his head Well documented.
  • A year of service. After that he had to serve an older student for a year. This bullying is known as pennalism. At Uppsala the deposition was banned in 1691 Well documented.
  • A European custom. The rite is described from the 1400s on. Copenhagen abolished it as an official ceremony in 1732, and in Germany it lasted into the 1800s Well documented.

The nations

  • By home region. Around 1643 the students were divided into nations by the region they came from. Each nation had a professor as its inspector Well documented.
  • Run by students. The members, called cives, elected a curator to lead the nation and help the inspector Well documented.
  • Watching and helping. A nation watched over its members’ manners and helped them through hard times Well documented.
  • Still here. The student nations of the University of Helsinki go back to these Turku nations. Until 1937 every student had to join one Well documented.

Rules, court and jail

  • Rented rooms. There were no student halls. Students rented rooms in townspeople’s houses Well documented.
  • Their own court. Students did not answer to the town court. The Academy’s consistory judged them, its pedells kept order, and it had its own jail. A tavern brawl could end in jail, and the worst cases in expulsion Well documented.
  • No sweethearts. The rules said students must stay away from sex, and a student could not marry while he studied Well documented.
  • A red dress. In 1690 the maid Kirstin Sigfredsdotter took the student Mikael Keppilander to the consistory for breaking his promise to marry her. He had given her a red dress and a gilded buckle. He first denied it, then agreed to marry her Well documented.
  • The price. Such cases could cost a fine, public penance in church and a break from studies. To come back, a student needed a certificate from a pastor Well documented.
  • Not crowded. About 60 to 80 new students enrolled each year Well documented.
How do we know?

Historians read the minutes of the Academy’s consistory, which is how we know about Kirstin and Mikael. The depositio is known from Uppsala, where even the tools survive in the university museum.

Use the tools in order to turn the “beast” into a student.

1 year
Use the tools in order to turn the newcomer into a student.Based on descriptions from Uppsala. The details and the order of the steps varied.
Why it matters

Finland’s student nations began in Turku in the 1640s and are still active. Some things have changed: hazing is banned, and since 1937 joining a nation has been voluntary.

Sources and further reading

  1. Per Brahe the Younger — governor-general of Finland, chancellor of the Academy.
  2. Posti Group — the postal service founded on 6 September 1638.
  3. Royal Academy of Turku — founded 26 March 1640.
  4. University of Helsinki — history: eleven professors, 250 students, Latin and Swedish.
  5. Välimaa, J. (2019). The Founding of the Royal Academy of Turku. In A History of Finnish Higher Education. Springer (abstract).
  6. Turku Cathedral in the 17th century (Turku Parishes): the Academy, the inauguration and the press.
  7. The Finnish student nations — history: nations from 1643, inspector, curator, consistory and jail.
  8. Nation (university) — the Finnish nations and compulsory membership until 1937.
  9. Yle, 16 April 2021 (in Finnish): students, marriage promises and the consistory of the Turku Academy in the 1600s.
  10. Välimäki, M. Vill du äkta denna kvinna? Students’ premarital relations and marriages in 1600s Uppsala and Åbo (in Swedish).
  11. Uppsala University — nollning and the 17th-century deposition, banned in 1691.
  12. Store norske leksikon, “deposisjon” (in Norwegian).
  13. Deposition (university) — the initiation rite at European universities.

Spotted a mistake? Know more?

This site is open and free. Corrections and additions are welcome — every page lists its sources so you can check them.