The Porter's lodge

The medieval Turku Castle was built for defence, and one of the tasks for the porter working in the Porter’s Lodge was to guard the castle. From the lodge’s small window –now replaced by a doorway to Jordan’s Chamber – he had a direct view of the area in front of the castle. When faced with danger, the porter’s job was to pull up the drawbridge and drop the portcullis in front of the gateway. The porter also used the plank floor of the gateway underneath the lodge as a trap. When an enemy was near, the floor could be lifted mechanically to reveal a deep pit under the floor.

From the Porter’s Lodge, stairs led straight to the gateway, which was the castle’s entrance in the 15th century. The medieval staircase can still be seen behind the rail in the corner. For defence reasons, the castle did not have multiple entrances, and entry to the rooms was only possible through the inner courtyard’s wooden walkways on the castle’s walls.

Underneath the wooden floor planks was one of the furnaces belonging to the castle’s medieval central heating system, known as a hypocaust. Warm air was directed to the room from downstairs through a hatch in the floor. The lodge’s fireplace was built in 1550, and the door next to it leads to the privy or latrine situated around the central cesspit, built inside the castle’s wall. The cesspit has three privies on different floors linked to it.