Dream city – Helsinki
Dream City - Helsinki is a visual journey through the old architectural heart of Helsinki. The book shows how the city was planned and shaped by the politics and ideas of the 19th century. More than 70 photographs illustrate that even today the “Daughter of the Baltic” has lost nothing of its charm and beauty. Dietmar Tallroth, b. 1961, is a lawyer, writer and photographer. German by birth, but Finn by choice he works and lives with his wife in Helsinki, the city of his dreams.
ISBN 978-952-5969-78-8
Dream city Helsinki Dietmar Tallroth
9 789525 969788
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Introduction 5
The Story of helsinki Cities are full of stories. One can choose to ignore these stories and experience a city and its architecture as such. Alternatively, one can seek the narrative behind what is seen and in this way create a more engaging and lasting experience. The narrative of Helsinki, its shape and architecture are closely connected to the political and intellectual currents of 19th century Europe. These currents streamed violently together in the 20th century forming the modern world. The story of Helsinki is therefore also part of our story - and it is the story of Finland rising from being a distant province to become an independent nation. 6
Until 1809, Finland was a mere region of the Kingdom of Sweden. When Helsinki was established in 1550, it was by order of a Swedish King, Gustav I Vasa. In 1640 the town was moved from its place at the river Vantaa to its current location, which was easier accessible for large ships. Despite original plans to turn the town into a rival to Tallinn on the other side of the Baltic Sea, Helsinki remained a minor trading outpost of the Kingdom of Sweden, important mostly for its sea fortress Suomenlinna.
than 4.000 inhabitants, therefore, provided a clean slate for the Emperor’s ambition to establish a visible sign of his rule in Finland. On the other hand, the complete infrastructure needed for a capital had to be built from ground up. A Building Committee was formed with the Helsinki-born nobleman Johann Albrecht Ehrenström as its chairman. On behalf of the Emperor, Ehrenström developed a plan for the new city as a true capital for Finland, with broad avenues around an imperial palace and gardens. In 1816, Ehrenström found in the German Carl Ludvig Engel an architect to implement his plan. The most urgently needed buildings were housing for the Emperor’s Governor General, the Senate (Government) and installations for the military. Engel started by modifying an already existing merchant house on the south-eastern end of Senate Square and turned it into a residence for the Governor General (1819). On the eastern side of the square the House of the Senate was erected (Prime Minister’s Office, 1822). On the northern end of the square a guard house was erected in 1818. Outside town proper on the island of Katajanokka and south of the Esplande military barracks were built in 1820 and 1822 (now the Finnish Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry). Already since 1812 Swedish architect Pehr Granstedt had been constructing private residences or merchant houses south of Senate Square in the spaces between Aleksanterinkatu and the market square. Later, the existing merchant houses on the south side of Senate Square were remodeled by Jean Wiik in the neoclassicist style, consistent with Engel’s emerging buildings on the square. 8
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Foundation around senate square 21
University Main Building
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Entering Senate Square from the East.
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Governor’s House by C.L. Engel and merchant houses by Jean Wiik.
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Cathedral 35
Engel’s successor, Ernst B. Lohrmann, made significant changes to the original plan for the cathedral. By adding small cupolas he softened the angles of the cathedral. The apostle sculptures follow the example of the St. Isaac’s cathedral in St. Petersburg, which was built at about the same time.
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The Apostle Sculptures of Helsinki Cathedral The apostle sculptures were made by two German sculptors, August Wredow and Hermann Schievelbein. The sculptures are zinc casts from the years after 1844.
H. Schievelbein: St. Thomas
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A. Wredow: St. Bartholomew
A. Wredow: St. Matthew
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NATIONAL LIBRARY & TOPELIA 55
“...as the drawings were presented to the Emperor,...His Majesty selected [the façade] I liked the least...of course it is pretty, otherwise I wouldn’t have sent it...but the other [drafts] were more original” C.L. Engel, 1836
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The four faculties of humanism: Theology and Jurisprudence...
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Towards a nation 1855–1899 67
An emperor dreaming of a new era. Above and right: Monument on Senate Square Walter Runeberg, 1894
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Alexander II of Russia
People having their own dream. During the so-called Russification period, when the Finnish autonomy was hreatened, the people of Helsinki placed flowers beneath the monument of Alexander II as protest against the policy of Nicholas II.
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Arppeanum by Carl Albert Edelfelt, 1869 The first building at Senate Square in Neo-Renaissance style.
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The House of the Nobility Georg T. P. Chiewitz, 1862
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