Salon rautatieasemanseutu ja vanha kauppalamiljöö

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The Salo railway station environment, with its numerous buildings, is one of the best preserved areas of its kind. The station building designed by Bruno Granholm is the only class IV station building on the Turun rata built to standard type drawings, and it is therefore significant for the station architecture of the line. The extensive station complex is linked to the Mariankatu streetscape of neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau buildings, which reflects the building practice after the establishment of the Salo market town.

The majority of the building stock of Salo railway station dates from the period when the station was founded, in 1898-1899. The station building, which originally housed a restaurant and the stationmaster's residence, has well preserved its original features. In the station park area there are a double guardhouse and a bridge guard's house with outbuildings, and along the edge of the station square three storehouses. The massive sirpalesuoja, or vara-asema, dating from 1940, is a structure built of granite boulders in the middle of the station park. On the east bank of the Salon- eli Uskelanjoki, at the edge of Horninpuisto, there is a guardhouse and a storehouse, as well as two residential buildings built by VR in the 1920s. The locomotive shed at the northern end of the station area is owned by the City of Salo and has been restored as an exhibition space for the art museum. The railway station complex is linked to the grain store of the Salon seudun osuuskauppa. The grain store, which acts as a landmark of central Salo, was designed in the design office of Keskusliike Hankkija in 1935, 1941 and 1950. The tall grain silos were built in 1951.

Along Mariankatu, which is lined with trees, can be seen low wooden commercial buildings in accordance with the town plan of the Salo market town period, which are linked to the green station area and tell of the dense building phase following the fire of the market town and the arrival of the railway. The decorative single-storey wooden buildings in Art Nouveau and neo-Renaissance styles date from 1900-1908. The former seurahuone (social hall), with Art Nouveau influences, is located in front of the station. Diagonally opposite it is the fire brigade's angled building with its corner towers and equipment sheds. Next to the fire station is the former prayer house, which now operates as a theatre, and the neo-Renaissance style Impola house. At the corner of Mariankatu and the Uskelanjoki there is the richly decorated nikkarityylinen Saarinen house with its courtyard buildings. By the river is the Kärki house, a nikkarityylinen residential and bank building. On the east bank of the river stands the town hall, originally built as an elementary school. Next to it are three residential buildings built in 1909 and 1928, some of which are now used as government offices.

The extensive park area of the station district consists of Tapionpuisto and Asemapuisto with its buildings, as well as Horninpuisto on the south side of the Salojoki and the residential courtyard that extends from it. The banks of the Salonjoki have been planted as parkland. Asemapuisto - Tapionpuisto is the most significant urban park in Salo.

History

Salo, situated by the Salonjoki and Halikonjoki rivers and the nearby bay, was an important trading place already in the Middle Ages. Old roads between Turku, Helsinki and Viipuri ran through Salo. The Salo market town was established in 1887. The core area of the market town on the east bank of the Salonjoki burned down the same year. A new settlement was then built, low and spacious, according to the town plan drawn up in 1888 by architect Erik Degenaer.

Building activity in the market town was brisk at the end of the 1880s, and a new wave of building was set off by the completion of the railway in 1899. In Salo, the idea of a railway line had begun to be considered in the 1880s. The railway connection to Turku was completed in 1899 and to Helsinki in 1903. The station was placed on the western bank of the Salonjoki, on the former fields of Joensuu manor. The railway buildings in the station area were completed between 1899 and 1927. The railway enlivened goods transport and helped industry to locate in the area. The arrival of the railway and, among other things, the opening of Asemakatu shifted the centre of gravity of the market town to its third part, on the western bank of the river and in the station area.

In the 1890s, Otto Dahl, who worked as master builder on the Turku–Karjaa railway and later as master builder of Salo station, designed the Kärki (1905), Saarinen (1902), Nivaro (1910) and Impola houses (1902) in the third part of the market town. A.A. Tapio was another master builder who designed several buildings in the market town. He was responsible for the Seurahuone, or so-called Viikari house (1904), the residential building at Tehdaskatu 1 (1909), and the elementary school (1900), which has served as the town hall since 1938. Dahl and Tapio jointly designed the Palokunnan talo (1908). The conductor's flat in the Nivaro house (1903) was designed by L.E. Lehtinen.