What to see: The National Library, Helsinki

The National Library of Finland (formerly the University Library) is often counted among the best – if not simply the best – of the many public buildings in Helsinki erected by the Prussian-born architect Carl Ludvig Engel (1778-1840) in the years after the Finnish capital was moved there from Turku (Åbo) in 1812, the University following in 1828.
“It is as splendid as the Senate Building but it has a dignified mightiness of a quite other sort, a lofty tranquillity of forms which one does not encounter earlier in his more richly decorated works”, the art historian Nils Erik Wickberg wrote about the library. Engel himself wrote to his nephew in 1833: “When this building is once completed, there will be not one university in Europe which will have a more beautiful library”.
Situated at Union Street opposite the entrance to the Cathedral of Helsinki and next to the University Building, the National Library was built between 1836 and 1840. However the interior decoration took such a long time that it was only in 1845 that the library could be taken in use.
From the main entrance one enters through a vestibule into the library’s central room, the Cupola Hall, which was inspired by Roman baths (photo 4). It is surmounted by a cupola which is 21 metres high (photo 5). On either side it is flanked by two long, rectangular, barrel-vaulted reading rooms – the North Hall can be seen in the sixth picture, the South Hall in the seventh. All three rooms are surrounded by stucco marble columns and together they “make up the most beautiful suite of rooms in the secular architecture of Finland”, Wickberg wrote.
The painted decorations on the vaults were added only in 1881, but correspond quite well with Engel’s ideas. In 1906-1907 the building was supplemented by an annex, the Rotunda, at the rear of the building. The Rotunda is by the architect Gustaf Nyström and blends in beautifully with Engel’s architecture. Underground storage rooms were built in 1950s and in 2000 and today the neighbouring Fabiania building is also at the National Library’s disposal.

Notable architects: Carl Ludvig Engel (1778-1840)

Carl Ludvig Engel is best remembered as the creator of Helsinki’s beautiful neoclassical centre. His empire architecture has often been considered a branch of Prussian neoclassicism, but, as the late art historian Nils Erik Wickberg stressed, there is also a significant Russian influence. Engel visited St Petersburg in 1813 and in 1815-1816.
Engel was born and educated in Berlin, but following Prussia’s defeat by Napoléon in 1805/1806 prospects in his native country seemed bleak. Engel therefore went eastwards to try his luck in Tallinn, where he became town architect. A few years later he received some commissions in Turku, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
In 1812 Emperor Alexander I moved the Grand Duchy’s capital to Helsinki, which had been the victim of a great fire a few years before. In 1814 Engel came into contact with Johan Albrecht Ehrenström, the chairman of the Commission for the Rebuilding of Helsinki, who soon asked Engel to come and use his skills in Helsinki.
Engel arrived in 1816 and stayed until his death in 1840, although he sometimes contemplated going back to Prussia. Ehrenström had planned the new capital; Engel came to build it. He wrote to a friend back in Prussia: “My dearest wish seems to be granted; I get an almost unlimited field on which to use my gifts, something which only a few architects are granted, and I can count myself among those happy, as the luck to build an entire town is something very unusual”.
The first picture shows an evening view of Senate Square, which became the focal point of the new city. At its eastern end is the Senate House (1818-1822), which is still the seat of the Finnish government; at the corner is the Bock House which Engel rebuilt as the residence of the Governor General (1817-1819).
Towering over the Square is the Cathedral (1830-1852), seen in the second picture, which was not completed until after Engel’s death and then altered in a way he would not have approved of.
At the west end of the Senate Square, as a pendant to the Senate House, is the University House (1828-1832), seen in the third picture. In the fourth photo is the Union Street; the University House can be seen on the left, followed by the National Library of Finland (1836-1844) and the buildings of the former Cantonist School (1823-1825), which are now used by the University.
In the fifth picture is the former Society House (1831-1833), now the City Hall. The sixth photo shows the Naval Barracks (1817-1820, last parts built 1986-1989) at Katajanokka (Skatudden in Swedish) which is now the offices of the Foreign Ministry.
The seventh photo is the Othodox church of St Alexandra the Martyr in Turku (Åbo) (1838-1846) and finally a former noble mansion in Tallinn (1809-1814), which is now the office of the Chancellor of Justice.
Among Engel’s many other buildings in Helsinki are the Guards Barracks (1820-1822, now the Ministry of Defence), the Astronomical Observatory (1831-1833), the Old Church (1825-1826) and the Orthodox Church of Holy Trinity (1825-1826).

What to see: The Parliament Building, Helsinki

The Parliament of Finland was established in 1906, eleven years before the country achieved independence from Russia, and replaced the four estates which had made up the country’s Diet. This necessitated a new building, as neither the House of the Estates or the House of Nobility, where the Diet had met, was big enough to accommodate a unicameral parliament.
Eliel Saarinen, one of Finland’s most famous architects, won the initial competition for the design of a parliament building, but his project was never carried out. A second competition in 1924 resulted in the current Parliament Building, designed by the architect Johan Sigfrid Sirén (1889-1961). The building process started in 1926 and the house was inaugurated on 7 March 1931.
Sirén’s Parliament Building is one of the most prominent examples of the “retroclassicism” which was popular in the Nordic countries in the 1920s and 1930s. The main façade, built of reddish granite, is entirely dominated by fourteen slim Corinthian columns, while the mostly classicist interiors also have touches of art deco and functionalism.
The Session Hall, where Parliament meets, lies at the centre of the building. The circular room has seats for the 200 MPs and is topped by a yellow dome with an oculus, supported by tall Corinthian columns. The Session Hall runs through three floors and has public galleries on two levels. Behind the Speaker’s seat is Wäinö Aaltonen’s five sculptures “The Pioneer”, “The Toil of Thought”, “The Future”, “Faith” and “The Harvester”.
Besides the Session Hall the most imposing room in the Parliament Building is the Hall of State, with floors and window recesses made of Swedish and Italian marble. In the hall there are busts of five Speakers of Parliament who went on to become Presidents of Finland.
Like most national assemblies the Finnish Parliament has needed more space with the years and has been extended in 1978 and 2004. Today there are six buildings which all in all cover some 56 000 square metres.
The pictures show the Parliament Building’s main façade to Mannerheim Street; the façades’ colonnade; the MPs’ seats and the public galleries in the Session Hall; the Hall of State; a detail of the columns and ceiling in the cafeteria; and the marble staircase.

What to see: The Presidential Palace, Helsinki

Facing Helsinki’s harbour is a string of notable buildings, many of them in the empire style. To the far right is the Presidential Palace, which was originally a private mansion, built by Pehr Granstedt (1746-1828) for the merchant Johan Henrik Heidenstrauch in 1816-1820. Granstedt was a fortifications officer-turned-amateur architect and his drawings were changed and corrected first by Giacomo Quarenghi and then by Carl Ludvig Engel.
At the same time an imperial palace was being planned in Helsinki, which was first meant to be situated where the Cathedral now is. Other options were also proposed, but in the end the state purchased Heidenstrauch's mansion in 1837 and turned it into an imperial palace, the official residence of the Emperor or Russia as Grand Duke of Finland.
The job of transforming the mansion into a palace worthy of the Emperor was given to Carl Ludvig Engel, who had already been the architect of most of Helsinki’s beautiful empire centre. Engel demolished the timber storehouses located at the back of the palace and replaced them with an entire new wing.
The work on the new imperial palace was completed in 1845, five years after Engel’s death. It was however only in 1851 that a member of the imperial family, namely the future Emperor Alexander II, came to stay at the Palace. As Emperor-Grand Duke he came to Helsinki three times (in 1856, 1863 and 1876) and stayed at the Palace every time. The last Emperor to stay at the palace was Alexander III, who came with his family in 1885. In 1915 his son, Nikolay II, made his only visit to Helsinki as Emperor, but chose to stay in his railway carriage rather than at his Finnish palace.
With the 1906 introduction of a unicameral parliament in stead of an assembly of the four estates a new throne room was needed and another wing was added at the back side in 1904-1907, designed by the architect Jac. Ahrenberg.
During the final years of the First World War the Palace served as a military hospital. After the fall of the monarchy it became briefly the seat of the executive committee of the Russian Soldiers' and Workers' Soviet, but it was damaged by German bombs in April 1918. Following the election of Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse-Cassel as King of newly independent Finland the Palace was restored by the architect Gustaf Strengell and the interior designer Harry Röneholm in anticipation of the King's arrival.
In the end the King never came and it was decided that the Palace should be the official residence of the President of the Republic of Finland and some alterations to the building were carried out in 1919-1922. The last but one president actually to live in the Presidential Palace was Juho Kusti Paasikivi, who served as president 1946-1956. His successor, Urho Kekkonen, was disturbed by the heavy traffic outside the Palace and after half a year he chose to live at the villa Tamminiemi (Ekudden in Swedish), which had been donated to the state for the President’s use in 1940.
Kekkonen also had his office at Tamminiemi and only came to the Presidential Palace once a week to receive visitors. When Kekkonen resigned due to illness in 1982 he was allowed to stay at Tamminiemi for the rest of his life and his successor Mauno Koivisto therefore moved into a flat in the Palace while a new presidential villa was being built.
The current President, Tarja Halonen, and her husband live at this new villa, Mäntyniemi (Talludden), which was built between 1989 and 1993 by the architects Reima and Raili Pietilä. President Halonen does however have her office at the Palace, which is also where she hosts a grand gala reception on Independence Day (6 December) each year. Visiting heads of state will also appear with President Halonen on the Palace’s balcony, as when she received Russia’s President on a state visit earlier today.
The Palace’s grandest room is the Hall of Mirrors, a grand conception with Corinthian columns carrying a gallery which goes all the way around the hall. Guided tours of the Palace used to be arranged, but today it is no longer open to visitors. A virtual tour of the Palace is on the other hand available at the President's official website:

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