Kaivopuisto (Brunnsparken)

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Kaivopuisto, at the southernmost tip of the Helsinki city peninsula, is a park laid out in the 1830s on foreign models as a spa and seaside bathing establishment for the well-to-do. At the end of the 19th century it was developed into a representative public city park. Kaivohuone is one of the city's oldest restaurants still in its original use. On the east side of the park, a villa district arose at the same time as the spa. It contains, among others, the Cygnaeus Gallery, opened in 1882, the country's oldest art museum, as well as the residences of many embassies.

The first public parks of Helsinki, Esplanadi and Kaisaniemi, are based on a town plan, but the third, Kaivopuisto, was built by a private spa company established on the southern shore outside the town, and was originally planned as an enclosed park for the use of the elite. The large resources devoted to creating a park planned for healthy walking and enjoying the sea air are still shown by the dominant four-row main axis, the present Iso Puistotie, built by the spa and well house company. At its southern end on the shore stood the spa designed by the architect C.L. Engel, which has not survived, but the landing pier that was in front of the spa is still in the same place. Next to the site of the former spa is Ursula café, which had a predecessor as early as the 1950s. At the southernmost tip of the shore of Kaivopuisto stands a small building from 1904. It is the country's second oldest maregraph, which measures the height and salinity of sea water. Along the main path in the middle of the park is Kaivohuone, a restaurant designed by Engel, which has been enlarged several times.

On the east side of the park is a villa district that arose at the time the spa was founded. In it, the buildings stand in the middle of their plots along winding small streets. The area has kept the character of a compact, green and high-quality villa environment, and includes villas from the spa period, such as Villa Kleineh and Kalliolinna. Next to Kalliolinna is the villa of Professor and art patron Fredrik Cygnaeus (J.W. Mieritz 1869). The villa and art collection that Cygnaeus bequeathed to the Finnish people has been open to the public since 1882. The gallery is part of the National Museum of Finland. The villa designed by A. Boman (1874) was the residence of Marshal of Finland, Baron C.G. Mannerheim, from 1924 to 1951, and since then it has operated as a museum presenting the life of Mannerheim and the history of Finland. The structure and villa-like character of the Kaivopuisto villa area have been preserved despite the densification of the building stock. In the 20th century Kaivopuisto became the diplomatic district of Helsinki.

History

Seaside spas were popular places of health care at the beginning of the 19th century. The Ulriikapori Bath and Well House Company, established in 1834 on foreign models under the influence of merchant councillor Henrik Borgström, and whose shares Emperor Nicholas I also subscribed to for himself, leased the southernmost tip of the city peninsula for 50 years. The spa was used mainly by the local nobility and Russian aristocracy. Its heyday was in the 1840s and 1850s, when St Petersburg society holidayed in Helsinki after Emperor Nicholas I had forbidden them to travel to the spas of Central Europe.

The spa park, with its curving network of paths, plantings and ponds, was carried out by the German gardener C. Helm. The architect C.L. Engel designed a straight park axis with the spa (1836) at its southern end on the seashore, and the Kaivohuone (1838) along the axis of the park. Bathing houses were built on the shore for immersion. A pier was built in front of the spa. There was a steamship connection to the spa from the town centre. The spa building was destroyed in the bombing during the Second World War.

Kaivohuone was altered and enlarged from the 1860s onwards, according to the plans of several different architects, including Theodor Höijer, who drew up the alteration and additional construction plans in 1897. The restaurant has been open year-round since 1858.

In the first half of the 19th century, the southern part of the city peninsula was used for military administration, with the exception of the spa and the observatory. Permanent settlement began when the spa company, to finance its operations, leased villa plots in the eastern and western parts of Kaivopuisto to builders. The villas were to be available to spa guests, beautifully built and surrounded by plantings. Initially 17 plots were split off for the villa area. Of the first eight villas, Kleineh (C.A. Edelfelt 1838-1839) and Kalliolinna (E.B. Lohrmann 1842-1844) have survived. From the late 19th century, a little under ten buildings have survived.

The cholera epidemics of 1848-1849 and 1853 drove spa guests away. The lifting of the travel ban on Russians and the Crimean War reduced the number of visitors. The seaside spa gradually began to decline. When the lease expired, the town took over the park area with its buildings in 1886. The villa plots in the eastern part were sold to their lessees. The dilapidated park was restored and changed from an enclosed recreation area for the nobility into a public city park. The park was designed by the Stockholm landscape architect S. Lindh. In 1889 Svante Olsson, appointed as the first city gardener of Helsinki, renovated the park, and it has not undergone major changes since 1913. Bengt Schalin, who served as city gardener from 1946 to 1957, enriched the range of plant species in Kaivopuisto.

In the bombings during the Continuation War in 1944, buildings were destroyed. The villas in the western part of the park were removed and the plots were added to the park. The construction of Ehrenströmintie in the 1940s fundamentally changed the character of the park and the villa area by cutting off their direct connection to the seashore. Most of the buildings in Kaivopuisto were built in the 20th century, and many of them came into use by foreign embassies.

The Ursa Observatory on the highest rock of the park was designed by the architect Martti Välikangas in 1926. Near it are fortifications from the time of the Crimean War.

The first general art and industrial exhibition in Finland was held in the park in 1876. At the end of the 19th century, the ideal of Finnish national identity inspired the celebration of patriotic festivities, and Kaivopuisto established its position as the gathering place of students' May Day and other gatherings.