The Union Street Axis

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THE
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UNION STREET
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Paving the way for
Helsinki’s Past
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Layout: Joe McVeigh
Design: John Calton
University of Helsinki
2012
The Kallio Church
Unioninkatu, meaning ‘union street’, continues
as Siltasaarenkatu, literally ‘bridge island street’,
after the Pitkäsilta, or so-called ‘long’ bridge and
at the north end stands the imposing Kallio
Church. The decision to build the church was
made in 1905, when the Helsinki Lutheran Congregation split in half and the congregation to
the north was in need of its own place of worship. The church was designed by Lars Sonck,
one of the leading Finnish architects of the day.
Sonck also designed Tampere Cathedral and St
Michael’s Church in Turku. The church was inaugurated in September 1912 and thus recently
celebrated its centenary. The church is situated
at the highest point of the Kallio district and still
towers high above the area. Kallio Church is
one of the most influential and significant examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Finland. The
façade is clad in granite and the interior is sumptuously decorated with themes drawn from nature - all typical qualities of Finnish Art Nouveau. The altarpiece “Come to me, all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest”, is a relief carved from pinewood, designed
by Hannes Autere in 1956. Christ is surrounded
by 11 characters dressed in clothing from the
fifties, for example, a washerwoman and a caretaker.
The Round House
The Architect couple Heikki and Kaija Sirén
designed the Round House in the mid 1960s as
a commission from the Kansallis-Osake-Pankki,
a large Finnish commercial bank. Even though it
was built on a block that had previously had a
curved structure, it nonetheless turned heads in
1968, the year of its completion. The goal was
to modernise the area surrounding Hakaniemi
by presenting a modern district which would
reflect the technical advances of the times. At
the time of construction there were plans to
build a multilane approach road in the immediate vicinity. The plans came to nothing but as a
small reminder of this motorway madness there
are still three small kiosks immediately to the
north-east, which were intended to be service
points for motoring bank customers. Nowadays
the building is owned by the Ilmarinen insurance company and there are a whole range of
services, all the way from a pharmacy, shops
and one of the state-owned alcohol monopoly
Alko to the private health centre Mehiläinen.
The People’s Hall
The People’s Hall, also known as Paasitorni, was
designed by the architect Karl Lindal and finished
in 1908. It is one of the most impressive jugendstil buildings in Helsinki. On completion it was
immediately taken into use by the Helsinki
workers’ association and, especially in the early
1900s, was the centre of operations for the socialist labour movement. It was here that the
Finnish socialist revolution was planned and later, in January 1918, launched, as a red lantern
was lit in the tower signalling to the Red Guard
that they should take over the city. The People’s
Hall served as the base for the socialist troops,
commonly known as the ‘Reds’, for the entire
duration of the Civil War. It was for this reason
that the Hall came under artillery fire in 1918
from the German military units who had seized
Helsinki in support of the ‘Whites’, the opposing
non-socialist Finnish forces. Since then it has
been the home of the Social Democratic Party.
The building has hosted many Party conventions,
political seminars and election coverage events.
These days it also houses a pub, a restaurant and
conference rooms.
The Hakaniemi Marketplace
Hakaniemi marketplace was opened in 1897
after the strait off the north shore of the
Siltasaari island was filled in. The marketplace
was established for all kinds of trade and it became a meeting point for traders with different
backgrounds and nationalities. In the early days
trade was mainly in groceries, but in the 1920’s
and 1930’s trade diversified and tailors and haberdashers set up their stalls. And the marketplace became a rallying point and symbol of the
working class: dotted around the marketplace
there are the People’s Hall, trade unions and
the headquarters of the left-wing parties. The
Hakaniemi marketplace has also been the stage
for more dramatic political action. Back in 1905
there was fighting between left-wing and rightwing activists, and gunfire was narrowly avoided
thanks to the timely intervention of the Russian
faction. In fact the Finnish Civil War of 1918
started near the Hakaniemi Marketplace, when
a red lantern was lifted to the top of the People’s Hall tower. And political activism continued in and around the marketplace throughout
the 20th century. Right up until the 1980’s the
people’s democrats started their May Day Parade to the Senate Square from the Hakaniemi
marketplace.
The Hakaniemi Market Hall
The market hall at Hakaniemi was completed in
1914, the heyday of indoor market halls. The
market hall, which at that time was seen as very
modern and practical, was designed by the architect duo of Karl Hård af Segerstad and Einar
Flinckenberg. The purpose was to control the
increasing delinquency by restricting the food
trade practised in the market square. At the
same time the indoor market hall gave people
shelter in all weathers and improved food hygiene. Basic provisions, such as bread and fish, as
well as all sorts of exotic groceries have always
been sold in the market hall. In the early days
the luxury products included items such as European sea sturgeon, caviar and quality cheeses.
Nowadays all kinds of locally-sourced organic
products are on sale. The market hall has also
been an important employer. The majority of
the sales people have been women, but butchers, errand boys and men unloading deliveries
have also been able to make a living thanks to
the market hall. Little by little it has become a
tourist attraction. And even today Hakaniemi
Market Hall is first and foremost a busy trade
magnet for the people of Helsinki living both
near and far.
The Pitkäsilta Bridge
(‘the long bridge’)
Ever since 1651 there has been a bridge here.
And until the 1910s it really was long. Pitkasilta,
‘The long bridge’, has kept its name to this day.
When Helsinki was made the capital in 1812
and started to grow, one of the city’s two tollgates, the Häme toll, was moved to the northern end of the bridge. In the late-nineteenth
century the toll was moved even further north.
The long wooden bridge was rebuilt many
times, and in 1912 this much shorter granite
bridge was completed. If you look carefully
you’ll notice that the stones are damaged in
places. This is a reminder of Finland’s Civil War
in 1918, when intense firefights took place on
the bridge on 12th and 13th of April. It was in
these exchanges that Finnish soldiers, the Red
Guard, fought against German soldiers, who
had taken over the city in support of the White
Guards, led by the non-socialist conservative
Senate. The Pitkäsilta Bridge was long regarded
as the border between the middle-class and the
working class people of Helsinki. Even though
this social border is a thing of the past, the
phrase “on the north side of Pitkäsilta” persists
among the locals as a symbol of class division.
The Workers’ District North
of the Pitkäsilta Bridge
In 1932 the social historian and political scientist
Heikki Waris published a doctoral thesis on the
late nineteenth-century origins of the workers'
district on the north side of the Pitkäsilta bridge.
The thesis quickly became a well known work in
its field and is now considered a classic. The inhabitants of the worker’s district were mainly
young men who had moved to the city from the
countryside and who, in time, got married and
started families. In just a few generations the
city's working class was formed. Waris describes
in detail the life of the workers: their employment conditions, living standards, language and
the generous alcohol consumption, which was
difficult to reconcile with the role of the family
man. According to Waris, so-called Stadi, or
Helsinki slang, was created by the young workers who used it as a way of establishing a local
identity. It was also a useful tool to bridge the
gap between the indigenous languages. Language
disputes were rare among the workers, unlike
other social groups in the city. Waris's dissertation gives further scientific evidence for the
deep-seated view of Pitkäsilta bridge as a watershed between the different social classes of Helsinki.
Little Naantali
‘Little Naantali’ is the playful name for the big
stone building at no. 45 Unioninkatu. Designed
by Johan Einar Flinkenberg, the house was built
between the years 1923 and 1927, and was
both thoroughly modern and rather ostentatious in its day. The building housed several
hundred apartments and businesses on seven
floors. As such it was the city’s largest apartment building, even equipped with such modern
technology as central heating. When taken into
use in 1928, the building accommodated 446
tenants, from all walks of life. Thanks to the
wide variety of shops, artisans’ workshops and
private doctors’ practices, the residents had a
considerable number of services to hand.
Meanwhile, the tenants provided these local
businesses with a solid customer base. The
building was nicknamed ‘Little Naantali’ because
it gives the impression of being a small town in
itself, similar to the tiny coastal town of
Naantali, both in terms of population and diversity. In 2010, the building received building permission to convert the attic into residential loft
apartments.
Erik Allardt
Perhaps the best-known resident of ‘Little
Naantali’ is Professor Erik Allardt, the internationally recognized sociologist. Allardt was born
in 1925, and the family moved into the building
soon after it was finished. He later continued
living in the house with his own family. Allardt
has described his life in the house in many contexts, most notably in his 1995 memoirs, which
translates roughly as ‘Happenstance and culture
shocks’. Allardt’s main research areas include
political sociology, social welfare issues, and ethnic minorities. His studies had a significant impact on the Finnish social debate in the 60’s and
70’s, and for this reason Finnish students of sociology still know his work. For over 30 years he
was a professor of sociology at the University of
Helsinki, headed the country’s largest scientific
research body, the Academy of Finland in the
80’s, and was also chancellor of Åbo Akademi
University, the Swedish-speaking university in
Turku on the west coast. In 1995 he was
awarded the title of Academician in recognition
of his contributions to research and society.
Kaisaniemi Park
Kaisaniemi Park is the oldest cultivated green
area in Helsinki and goes on being a popular
recreation area. The oldest parts date back to
the end of the 18th century, and when Helsinki
was made the capital in 1812 it was decided
that the area would become a public park.
Since 1827 the north-eastern part of the park
has functioned as The University of Helsinki
Botanical Garden. The garden is still open to
the public every day year round from 9am to
8pm. Other parts of the park have served for
example as a promenade, a multi-purpose
sports field and a outdoor concert venue. For
many years the park was officially referred to as
the ‘public recreational park’. It only got its
present name in 1836, when a woman called
Catharina Wahllund opened up a restaurant in
the northwest corner of the park. Back then
the area was still a peninsula, because as yet
there was no railway bridge. The restaurant
became popular, particularly among students,
who called the owner of the place ‘Kaisa’ and
so named the whole park after her. Kaisaniemi
Park is also the cradle of Finnish competitive
sports. In the 1880’s, for example, Finland’s first
football match and first athletics competition
were organised here.
How Unioninkatu,
‘Union street’, got its name
In the spring of 1812, three years after Russia
had incorporated Finland as an autonomous
Grand Duchy, the Russian emperor Alexander I
decided to move the capital of the Grand Duchy
of Finland from Turku to Helsinki. Meanwhile,
Helsinki got a new city plan with the Senate
Square at its centre and a broad main street that
led from the ‘Long Bridge’ in the north towards
the Senate Square in the south. It took several
years to level the rocky area for the new street.
It was initially to be called Alexander street, but
when on 11th September 1819 the emperor
arrived from the north to visit the city, he decided that the as yet half-finished street, should be
named Unioninkatu, or ‘union street’, to commemorate the union between Finland and Russia. Since then, some of the city’s, indeed the
whole country’s, most important public buildings
have been established on this street. Since the
1910s the street has extended one and a half
miles between two imposing landmarks - the
Observatory to the south and the Kallio Church
to the north.
Varsapuistikko
( ‘the foal’s place’)
The small park Varsapuistikko is located at the
busy junction of Unioninkatu, Kaisaniemenkatu,
or Kaisaniemi street, and Yrjö-Koskisen katu.
The park was formed in 1910 when Kaisaniemenkatu was built, cutting off this small
green area from the rest of the Kaisaniemi
Park. Since 1928 the park has been enchanted
by the work of a relatively well-known sculptor
Emil Cedercreutz. The bronze statue of a mare
suckling her foal is called Äidinrakkaus or
‘Mother’s Love’. Cedercreutz had planned to
become a lawyer, but he abandoned his studies
and instead chose the path of an artist. Later he
became famous for just such equine themes,
and ‘Mother’s Love’ is without doubt his best
work. The statue and the small park form an
oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of
the city and anyone can find a bit of peace and
quiet there. Marshal Mannerheim, one of Finland’s most prominent 20th century figures,
once said: “Anyone can make a statue of me
but only Emil Cedercreutz can sculpt the horse
I am sitting on.” In a 2008 poll of Helsingin
Sanomat newspaper readers, the statue was
voted the best in Helsinki.
The Holy Trinity Church
At no. 31 Unioninkatu is a small Orthodox
church, the Holy Trinity Church, consecrated in
1827. Like many other neo-classical buildings
around the Senate Square, the church was designed by the famous Berlin architect Carl
Ludvig Engel. The contractor and main sponsor
of the building project was a man called Jegor
Uschakoff, once a Russian serf but by now a
wealthy Russian merchant. He was also an important figure in the Orthodox congregation.
The Holy Trinity Church was the first orthodox
place of worship in Helsinki, only a year younger
than the Helsinki Old Church, being the oldest
Lutheran church in the city. When the Holy
Trinity Church was first consecrated, Helsinki
had been the official capital of the Russian Grand
Duchy of Finland for 15 years. Thus it was high
time to build a house of worship for the Orthodox community of the city. The Orthodox Congregation of Helsinki is today the largest Orthodox congregation in Finland. Services are held in
both Church Slavonic and Finnish.
The National Library
The National Library of Finland, situated at no.
34 Unioninkatu, is unquestionably the oldest
and largest publicly maintained book collection
in Finland. Until 2006 it was known as The Helsinki University Library. Its earliest volumes
came from the collections of its predecessor,
the Royal Academy of Turku. Most of the
Academy’s volumes were destroyed in the
Great Fire of Turku in 1827. The university and
the remaining book collections were moved to
Helsinki after the fire. The new library, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, was finished in
1840, and many experts in architecture consider it to be Engel’s finest work. In the early
twentieth century the library was extended
with a new art nouveau building called the Rotunda; since then the library collections have
expanded to fill the entire block. Over time the
book collection expanded enormously, and until the Russian revolution in 1917 the library
received deposit copies of all the books published in Russia. The library’s valuable collection
of manuscripts, reflecting the country’s scientific and cultural heritage, is particularly worth
mentioning, as is Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld’s
unique cartographical collection.
Helsinki Cathedral
The Lutheran cathedral of Helsinki was consecrated in 1852, and it’s still the symbolic landmark of the city. Until 1917, the year Finland
became independent, the church was known as
St. Nicholas’ Church, and between 1917 and
1959 it was called Suurkirkko, the ‘Great
Church’. Engel, who designed the church, died
12 years before the building was finished, but
the cross-shaped floor plan and the plain Neoclassical interior were realised largely according
to Engel’s plans. Most of the country’s official
ceremonial services, for example the annual
opening of parliament and the degree ceremonies of the University, are held in the Cathedral.
State funerals are arranged here as well. The
most famous of state funerals was arranged on
February 4th 1951, when the Marshal of Finland, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, was laid to
rest. Tens of thousands of mourning Finns
watched as his cortège made its way to the
Hietaniemi Cemetery. The central part of the
cathedral’s interior is dominated by three statues representing three famous protestants Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon and Finland’s
own reformer Mikael Agricola.
The Statue of Alexander II
The statue of the Emperor of the Russian Empire and the Grand Duke of Finland, Alexander
II, was unveiled on April 19, 1894, in the Senate
Square. The statue was erected in memory of
the Emperor, who had been assassinated 13
years before. The statue was designed by two
of the most important Finnish sculptors of the
period, Johannes Takanen and Walter Runeberg. The panel of judges for the competition
held to find a design for the statue hoped that
the joint winners Takanen and Runeberg would
share the project. The sculptors worked on the
design until Takanen died, after which Runeberg
was left to complete the work alone. During
Alexander II’s rule, the country underwent rapid development, following the reopening of the
Diet of Finland in 1863. To commemorate this,
the Emperor is represented wearing the Finnish
Guard uniform, the kind he wore to the opening ceremony in 1863. Ranged around the high
granite pedestal are four symbolic sculptures,
presenting different aspects that were considered to be important to the Grand Duchy of
Finland. On the south side of the statue, stands
the goddess of justice, symbolizing ‘Law’ (Lex).
On the east side, there is a sculpture called
‘Light’ (Lux), with two figures representing science and art. On the north side, you can find
‘Peace’ (Pax), in the form of the goddess of
peace, and on the west side, ‘Work’ (Labor), in
the form of a farming couple.
The University of Helsinki
The main building of the University of Helsinki
was inaugurated in 1831 and ever since has had
a major impact on the educational culture of the
city and the country as a whole. The University
was founded in 1640, but it was based some 200
km to the west in Turku until 1827. Like most of
the public buildings around the Senate Square,
the University main building is neoclassical in its
architectural style, and it was designed by Carl
Ludvig Engel from Berlin. In 1937 the main building was extended with a complementary building
forming the other side of the block. As the number of students increased, the university spread
to other areas of the city. Today the University
can be found on three other campuses in addition to the central campus. The vestibule of the
main building and the main Festival Hall are decorated with artworks of national importance.
What is in fact the oldest public collection of art
in Finland – plaster casts of antique sculptures –
is located in the vestibule. The Great Hall,
where the university promotions and other important celebrations are held, features a reproduction of a magnificent fresco by the Finnish
national romanticist painter, Albert Edelfelt, portraying the Åbo Academy opening ceremony in
1640. The original was destroyed when Helsinki
was bombed in February 1944.
Havis Amanda
The statue of a female figure, Havis Amanda, at
the junction of Unioninkatu and the Esplanadi
Park, is in some sense a symbol of the whole
city. In 1906 the celebrated sculptor Ville
Vallgren received a commission from the City
of Helsinki to sculpt a statue of a woman that
would symbolize ‘Helsinki rising from the sea’.
When a beautiful mermaid, complete with a
fountain and four water-spurting sea lions, was
exposed to the public gaze two years later, it
immediately attracted a great deal of attention.
Vallgren had lived for some time in Paris where
he gained a reputation as a sensual interpreter
of the female form, and this was perfectly evident in the shapeliness of his naked mermaid. A
number of women’s rights activists found the
sculpture vulgar and offensive. Vallgren’s colleagues and the more cosmopolitan cultural
circles of the city, on the other hand, defended
this work of art. And so it did not take long for
Vallgren’s creation to become generally accepted, as well as positively embraced by the citizens. Each Walpurgis Eve on April 30th, students gather around Havis Amanda to crown
the statue with a student cap.
The Kappeli Restaurant
The Kappeli or ‘chapel’ restaurant at the eastern
end of the Esplanadi park is one Helsinki’s oldest
and finest. This low neo-renaissance style building with its beautiful cast iron structures was
designed by the architect Hampus Dahlström.
The restaurant, with its outdoor terrace, was
opened in the early summer of 1867, and thanks
to its central location quickly established itself as
a popular place to lunch or drink afternoon tea.
Kappeli has been especially popular among the
city’s cultural circles. One of the restaurant’s
best known regular customers must surely have
been Jean Sibelius. On warm summer days the
terrace soon fills up with thirsty customers, who
can follow the relaxed promenading crowds and
enjoy outdoor concerts in the adjacent music
pavilion from an excellent vantage point. In the
1880s, a Helsinki guidebook described the scene
thus: “Military officers, university students with
their white hats, ladies in their pastille-shaded
outfits, stylish dandies dressed in the latest Parisian fashion all gather around the tables. The
waiters have great difficulty in getting around to
everyone.”
The Swedish ‘Normal’
Lyceum school
The Swedish-speaking school, Svenska normallyceum, has been situated at no. 2 Unioninkatu
ever since the building was completed in 1880.
The architecture reflects the neoclassical ideals
of the period, and the interior is decorated
with several high-quality sculptures and works
of art. Until 1974 the school was a Swedishspeaking state grammar school for boys as well
as a training school for teachers-to-be studying
at the University of Helsinki. Since then, the
school has been a communal Swedish-speaking
co-ed for upper comprehensive school and upper secondary school students. Many important
Finns started out as students here; especially
notable is the number of former students who
have later carved out for themselves a career
as civil servants or scientists. The best-known
of these are the Nobel-awarded Ragnar Granit,
philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright and
software developer Linus Torvalds, all of whom
went on to study at another Unioninkatu address – the University of Helsinki. Other former students worth mentioning are Swedishspeaking Finnish writers Bo Carpelan, Christer
Kihlman and Jörn Donner. The school is generally known as Norsen, and its heraldic colours
are black and white.
The Tähtitorninmäki
Observatory
Tähtitorninmäki, or Observatory Hill, gets its
name from the astronomical observatory built
for the University of Helsinki in 1834 on this hill
to the south of the city centre. When the sea
fortress Suomenlinna was planned in the 1740’s,
there were also plans for a fortress on this strategically-important hill. At that time, it was referred to as Ulricasborg Mountain, named after
Sweden’s then queen Ulrika Eleonora, and also
as ‘beacon hill’, or ‘Kasaberget’ in Swedish, because of the fires that were lit on the hill, warning of attack.
After the devastating Great Fire of Turku in
1827, and the University moved to Helsinki, the
decision was made to build a new observatory
for the newly-relocated University’s young, but
already internationally recognised astronomer,
Professor Friedrich Argelander. This observatory was designed by the city’s chief architect Carl
Ludvig Engel. Argelander, a German scholar with
Finnish ancestry, was later enticed back to Germany, where he achieved success in proving the
apex of solar motion, that is, the Solar System’s
motion relative to neighbouring planets. Research and teaching continued at the observatory until 1971, and from September 2012 the observatory will be an astronomical museum.
For more information, go to
www.unioninakseli.fi