Porin teollisuusmaisema

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The industrial landscape of Pori, comprising a cotton mill, a machine works and a sawmill, is a typical example of the diversified industry that developed in the late 19th century in the old coastal towns, and whose development and location were essentially influenced by foreign raw materials, good transport links, labour and markets. The red-brick industrial plants built facing each other at the mouth of the Kokemäenjoki and the stone town centre of Pori together form a landscape and historically significant and well-preserved townscape of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, of which industrial buildings are an essential part. (See also Kivi-Pori)

The oldest parts of the red-brick buildings of the Puuvillatehdas date from the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The plan for the whole factory area was drawn up by architect August Krook. Alongside the imposing spinning mill building, the riverbank is dominated by the former office and director's residence building surrounded by a garden, designed by architect Runar Finnilä in 1934. The factory area is linked on its east side to a coherent area of wooden houses, as well as the functionalist apartment blocks commissioned by the Puuvillatehdas, designed by Erik Bryggman, from the 1940s.

On the north bank is also located Porin Konepaja, whose red-brick buildings are mainly from the 1910s and 1930s. Among the most significant buildings from the point of view of the area's industrial heritage are the foundry (1903) and the large machining hall (1917), which are typical examples of machine works construction that developed at the end of the 19th century.

The two-storey wooden building of the Isonsanta large sawmill, completed in 1922 and part of the industrial landscape of the north bank, has retained the architectural exterior characteristic of the steam sawmill era. The sawmill building is linked to the power station with its chimney, completed in 1923. Alongside the Pihlava sawmill in Pori and the Martinniemi sawmill in Haukipudas, Isosanta is the only surviving large sawmill building from the steam sawmill era.

The industrial landscape of Pori is part of the Porin kansallinen kaupunkipuisto.

History

Pori konepaja is one of the city's first industrial establishments. The company was founded in 1858 at Isosanta, beside the main road leading to Vaasa. The area had been donated land from 1686 and had been city land since then, although it remained undeveloped.

The machine works was founded by ironworks owner K. J. Lönegren and merchant G. S. Björnberg. The growth periods of the industry are still visible in the building phases of the works from the early 20th century and from the 1910s and 1930s. The foundry building, designed by Johan Nordstrand, was one of the largest in the country when it was completed in 1903 and gives the area its characteristic appearance. The monumental machine hall was designed by Torkel Nordman and completed in 1918. The office building designed by Nordman was built in 1916. The machining department and the threshing machine factory were built in the 1930s to designs by Jarl Eklund, and the new brick foundry was built in 1948 to a design by Jaakko Tähtinen. The works' production included kitchen stoves, flat irons, tools, steam engines, ships, threshing machines and railway carriages. The cast-iron tower of Pori Church was cast at the works in 1860-63. The works passed into the ownership of the Roselew company in the 1870s and remained so until the 1980s, after which Rauma-Repola became the new owner. The premises are still largely in their original use.

The Isonsanta sawmill ranks, alongside the Kestilä sawmill at Ii, the Heikkilä sawmill at Anjala and the Stockholmen sawmill at Pietarsaari, among the first steam sawmills in the country. In 1860 the Senate granted merchant Carl Johan Borg permission to establish a steam sawmill on the island of Isonsanta in Pori. This was the first step in the shift of the Satakunta sawmill industry from inland to the coast. The machine works and the sawmill passed to the Rosenlew company in the 1870s. In 1941 the sawmill was converted into the Rosenlew company's wooden house factory, which operated until the 1950s.

The founders of Pori Puuvillatehdas in 1898 included the city's most prominent businessmen as well as, among others, the trading firms W. Rosenlew Co. and A. Ahlström. The architects August Krook and Onni von Zansen were the designers of the earliest building phases. The brick office building drawn by architect Runar Finnilä was completed in 1935. The factory area has grown into its present form in several building phases, mainly through extensions in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s. The weaving mill was damaged by fire in the first half of the 1980s, after which textile production declined and ended. Today the premises are mainly used as workspaces by various companies. The wooden house blocks between the cotton mill and the machine works were built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries according to the town plan drawn up in 1893 by city engineer F.J. Lindström.