“Finland’s one and only Kingdom”

Hartola declared itself a Kingdom on November 10th, 1987, but the history of the realm goes back much further. Centuries ago, a collection of Hartola’s most powerful men led by Adolf Tandefelt, provincial governor and lord of the largest local estate of Koskipää, set out to claim self-rule from the neighbouring parish of Sysmä. To this end, a petition was sent directly to King Gustav III of Sweden. The matter was resolved thanks to the proposal by the petitioners that a splendid name for the new parish would be Gustav Adolfs Socken, after the king’s son Gustav IV Adolf.