page_title: Great Northern War plague outbreak
section_title: Finland, Gotland and Central Sweden
hierarchical_section_title: Great Northern War plague outbreak / Spread in the area around the Baltic sea 1708–1713 / Finland, Gotland and Central Sweden
caption_attribution_description: Suomi: Helsingin ruttopuiston muistotaulu. Teksti: ”Tällä paikalla / oli se hautausmaa / johon vuonna 1710 / neljän kuukauden / aikana haudattiin / 1185 Helsingin asukasta. / Ulkoa tullut / kauhea rutto / surmasi silloin / kaksi kolmannesta / Helsingin / asujaimistosta. / Sinun turvasi on ikiaikojen / Jumala, / sinua kannattavat iankaikkiset käsivarret. / 5. Moos. 33:27” English: Plague Park memorial plaque in Helsinki. Text: “Here was the burial ground where 1185 Helsinki residents were buried within four months in 1710. During that time, a horrible plague which came from the outside killed two thirds of the population in Helsinki. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27”
context_page_description: During the Great Northern War, many towns and areas around the Baltic Sea and East-Central Europe had a severe outbreak of the plague with a peak from 1708 to 1712. This epidemic was probably part of a pandemic affecting an area from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Most probably via Constantinople, it spread to Pińczów in southern Poland, where it was first recorded in a Swedish military hospital in 1702. The plague then followed trade, travel and army routes, reached the Baltic coast at Prussia in 1709, affected areas all around the Baltic Sea by 1711 and reached Hamburg by 1712. Therefore, the course of the war and the course of the plague mutually affected each other: while soldiers and refugees were often agents of the plague, the death toll in the military as well as the depopulation of towns and rural areas sometimes severely impacted the ability to resist enemy forces or to supply troops.
  This plague was the last to affect the area around the Baltic, which had experienced several waves of the plague since the Black Death of the 14th century. However, for some areas, it was the most severe. People died within a few days of first showing symptoms.
context_section_description: From Livonia and Estonia, refugees brought the plague to Central Sweden and Finland, at that time still an integral part of Sweden. In June 1710, most probably via a ship from Pernau, the plague arrived in Stockholm, where the health commission (Collegium Medicum) until 29 August denied that it was indeed the plague, despite buboes being visible on the bodies of victims from the ship and in the town. The plague raged in Stockholm until 1711, affecting primarily women (45.3% of the dead) and children (38.7% of the dead) in the poorer quarters outside the Old Town. Of Stockholm's approximately 55,000 inhabitants, about 22,000 did not survive the plague.
  From Stockholm, the plague in August and September 1710 spread to various other places in Uppland, including Uppsala and Enköping, and to Södermanland. The court was evacuated to Sala in August, the riksrådet to Arboga in September. While in Uppland the disease seemingly faded out in the winter, it continued, though with less intensity, to ravage the Uppland countryside throughout the whole year of 1711, infecting for instance Värmdö, Tillinge and Danmark parish. From Uppland, the plague spread southward. Jönköping lost 31% of its inhabitants in 1710 and 1711. Besides "bad air" (miasma), animals were believed to transmit the disease, and people were forbidden to keep domestic animals inside the built-up areas and ordered to kill stray pigs.
  In September 1710, ships from Reval (Tallinn) carried the plague across the Gulf of Finland to Helsingfors (Helsinki), where it killed 1,185 inhabitants and refugees (two thirds of the population), and Borgå (Porvoo), where 652 people from in and around the town died. Ekenäs (Tammisaari) and Åbo (Turku), then the largest town on the Finnish coast, with a population of 6,000, were also infected in September 1710. 2,000 inhabitants and refugees died of the plague in Åbo by January 1711. The plague then spread northwards and between 1710 and 1711 infected the towns of Nystad (Uusikaupunki), Raumo (Rauma), Björneborg (Pori), Nådendal (Naantali), Jakobstad (Pietarsaari), Gamlakarleby (Kokkola) and Uleåborg (Oulu) as well as an abundance of rural communities up to a line between Uleåborg and Cajana (Kajana, Kajaani). As the actual cause of the plague was unknown, counter-measures included flight, dissection of buboes and the lighting of huge fires to reduce the air's humidity, which was thought to reduce the chance of being affected by the plague's "bad air."
  The island of Gotland was also affected by the plague from 1710 to 1712. In its port town of Visby, the plague claimed more than 450 deaths, which was about one fifth of its population.
caption: A commemorative plaque on the gate of Old Church park in Helsinki. Translation of the Finnish text: "At this site was the cemetery where in 1710, during four months, 1185 inhabitants of Helsinki were buried. A terrible plage, having come from abroad, killed then two thirds of the inhabitants of Helsinki. – The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 32:27)"
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