10 Euros Castle at Olavinlinna

Olavinlinna — St. Olaf's Castle — was built in 1475 by Danish-born Erik Axelsson Tott, then serving the Swedish crown, on a rocky islet in the Saimaa lake system to hold the eastern frontier against Novgorod. The border it was meant to defend shifted repeatedly over the following centuries; Finland itself passed from Sweden to Russia in 1809, and the fortress spent decades as a Russian garrison before falling into disuse. The 1996 issue marks no specific anniversary and appears to have been produced largely for the collector market, consistent with Finland's commemorative program in the years immediately before euro adoption.