Hämeenlinnan Koilliskulman puutalokorttelit ja koulut

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

In the blocks of Koilliskulma, near the centre of Hämeenlinna, there is an impressive group of stone public buildings and wooden residential buildings from the autonomy period. The Hämeenlinna lyceum and the yläalkeiskoulu bear witness to Hämeenlinna as the central school town of the province. The neo-Renaissance residential buildings in the area give a good picture of the scale of building in Hämeenlinna's wooden-town phase.

The classicist stone building of the Hämeen läänin maanmittauskonttori dates from the 1910s, and the Empire-style yläalkeiskoulu from the mid-19th century. The buildings form a stylistically unified whole.

The Maanmittauskonttori is a T-shaped stone building, whose classicist and rusticated façades are dominated by a row of round-arched windows arranged in an arcade-like fashion. The exterior architecture has been adapted to the older neighbouring building. The building has served as the Maanmittauskonttori since its completion.

The Hämeenlinna yläalkeiskoulu is the first building project under the school regulations in the country. The former school building is a single-storey Empire building, whose façades are characterised by large round-arched windows and gable risalits. The original ground plan, with its large central hall, was destroyed in alterations required by later uses. The exterior is not in its original form, but the alterations made to it have been carried out in the spirit of the building's architecture.

The Hämeenlinna lyceum, known as the seat of learning of many a national great man, dates from the 1880s. The functionalist central folk school was completed in the 1930s. The municipal bathing establishment building dates from the 1910s.

Closely associated with the public buildings are Itsenäisyydenpuisto and Sibeliuspuisto, with their memorials.

In the so-called house museum area, in block II/6, a few old wooden buildings have survived. Between the blocks lies a park lane that is central to the townscape and forms part of the park axis between the castle and the town centre. The street scene of the residential blocks is characterised by the neo-Renaissance decorative façade cladding of low wooden houses from the final years of the 19th century. New construction in the area, including in the house museum block, imitates the scale and colouring of 19th-century wooden building.

History

In the first plan drawn up by Axel Magnus von Arbin in 1777, Koilliskulma in Hämeenlinna was marked as a park area linking Hämeen linna and the town. A fire destroyed most of the wooden town in 1831, and the first reconstruction plan was drawn up by land surveyor A.W. Zitting. He abandoned the form of Arbin's plan and gave the town a rectangular grid plan, whereby the planned area was also extended to the Koilliskulma area.

In 1841 Governor Rehbinder proposed that Engel's plan be revised, mainly in respect of its provisions on building along the shores, and at the same time he also proposed the construction of a new park, the present-day Sibeliuspuisto. The Intendentinkonttori did indeed draw up a new plan in 1845.

The yläalkeiskoulu building was completed in 1846 according to drawings by the Intendentinkonttori, which were based on the yläalkeiskoulu plans made by E.B. Lohrmann in 1844. After the yläalkeiskoulu, the building housed a normal lyceum and later the post office, 1890-1953. The Hämeenlinna normal lyceum was built in 1888 to designs by architects G. Wilenius and M. Schjerfbeck. The building was extended by two wing sections in 1936 (Y. Sadeniemi, G. Wigström). The central folk school was completed in 1938 to designs by Martti Välikangas, chief architect of Rakennushallitus.

The Maanmittauskonttori was built as the provincial land survey office in 1910-1911 according to drawings by the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus (R. Björnberg 1909). The building was extended in 1939, and the archive section was raised in 1959.

The municipal bathing establishment was built in 1912 by a company whose largest shareholder was the town of Hämeenlinna. The Jugend-style building was designed by architect Birger Brunila. The building is in residential and office use.

The two neo-Renaissance residential buildings of the house of E.W. Palander, lecturer in Russian at the Hämeenlinna lyceum, were completed in 1861. In 1992 the kotimuseo of Hämeenlinnan kaupungin historiallinen museo began operating in the buildings, and it opened to the public in 1995.