Stora Enson Kotkan tehtaat

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

Stora Enso's mills are a significant part of the townscape of Kotka and an important part of the forest-processing industry that grew up along the waterways of south-eastern Finland. The factory area comprises building stock and structures from the various development and expansion phases of the industrial plant, from the early 20th century onwards. The Kotka mills are located east of the town of Kotka, in the Portunlahti area.

The old red-brick machine and boiler house of the steam sawmill, with its chimneys, has great symbolic significance, as the operation of the factory began in 1872 from this group of buildings. To its west is the old foundry, and opposite it the fire station.

Only parts remain of the red-brick sulfate pulp mill built in the early 20th century and expanded and renovated many times. From the 1930s expansion phase, the old power station and the kamyrkonesali are visible.

The office building of 1903 designed by the architectural firm Lindahl & Thomé, and the newer office building designed in 1937 by architect Väinö Vähäkallio, are both associated with the operation of the factory. Together they illustrate well the growth of the forest-industry company and the architecture of its time.

The newer architecture is, like that of the Sunila and Summa mills, designed by Alvar Aalto. The paper mill area is dominated by the paper mill designed by Aalto in 1952, with its associated extensions.

Outside the factory area are two side-gallery residential buildings, the luhtikäytävällistä Kirkkopytinki and Herrojen pytinki, built for the Norwegian foremen and craftsmen of the Norjan saha, which was founded in 1872. These two-storey sivukäytävätalot are the only ones of their kind in Finland.

History

A number of sawmills arose at the mouth of the Kymijoki in the 1870s. The extensive timber floating on the Kymijoki and Kotka's advantageous maritime location created the preconditions for the town's development into an industrial locality.

The Norwegian businessman Hans Gutzeit established the steam sawmill in Kotka in 1873, the so-called Norjan saha. In connection with the Norjan saha, a sulfate pulp mill was established in 1907, which used sawmill waste as its raw material. The state acquired a majority shareholding in the company, and in 1927 the name was changed to Enso-Gutzeit Oy. In the 1930s new batch digesters were acquired for the mill and a new steam power plant was built. The mills and the sawmill suffered major damage in the war. Operation of the paper mill began in 1953. Renovation work at the mill continued in the 1940s and 1950s with the acquisition of a soda recovery boiler and a mesan-firing furnace, and the renewal of the screening department, the pulp sorting department and the digester house. Later renovations have continued, among other things, with the construction of an impregnation plant (1980) and a combined power plant (1993). From 1998 the Kotka mills were part of the Stora Enso forest company. Stora Enso sold the Kotka Mills in July 2010, when the company Kotkamills Oy was formed.