Meeting in Turku, Finland

Thursday 3 September 2015

From 11-14 August 2015 the Marrying Cultures team held a meeting in Turku, the ancient capital of Finland. The Polish princess Katarzyna Jagiellonka, on whom Almut Bues is working, spent time there after her wedding in 1562 to Johan, Duke of Finland, who later became Johan III, king of Sweden.

As well as discussing their own work and future progress, on 13 August the team held a joint seminar with Finnish colleagues who are members of a group convened by Dr Anu Lahtinen of the Department of Finnish History at Turku University. The group works on ‘Royal women as agents in cultural interaction during the Renaissance’. After the members of the two groups had briefly presented their individual projects, a lively and fruitful discussion took place which showed how much much common ground there was between the scholars. In the afternoon of that day, the group moved to the magnificently preserved and impressive Turku Castle where three lectures on Katarzyna were given for the general public. Almut Bues gave a talk with the title ‘Catherine Jagiellon between dynasties’, at which she was able to present some of the original archival research she has been conducting.