Esplanadi - Bulevardi (Esplanaden – Bulevarden)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Esplanadi and Bulevardi are two park streets that have preserved well, for 200 years, both their character and their basic form. The park streets date from the town plan of the new capital in the 1810s, and as built, park streets of differing character, they are relatively early and rare of their kind. Part of the capital's architecturally and historically significant building stock is concentrated along the park streets.

The broad park belt of Esplanadi is designed to separate the administrative city from the southern wooden town, while Bulevardi was intended as the backbone of the first suburb. The Esplanadi park is one of Helsinki's first public parks, and from the 19th century onwards it has been an important promenade in the city centre. At the far end of both park streets there is a square opening onto the sea.

The Etelä- and Pohjoisesplanadi, which border the park and are accented with deciduous trees, date from J.A. Ehrenström's town plan for the capital. The layout of the Esplanadi park partly follows C.L. Engel's plan of 1826. The park is divided into the Kappeli, Runeberg and Teatteri esplanades, built and renovated at different stages. At the end of the park view on Teatteriesplanadi stands Svenska Teatern, originally built in the 1860s, whose present appearance dates from the 1930s. At the eastern end of the park, on Kappeliesplanadi, stands the Kappeli restaurant, built in the 1860s and extended in the 1890s, with its bandstand built in the 1930s. Among the sculptures on Esplanadi, the monumental monument to Johan Ludvig Runeberg in the middle of the park on Runebergin esplanadi should be mentioned, as well as the monuments to Eino Leino and Sakari Topelius on Teatteriesplanadi.

The oldest continental-style residential and commercial buildings on Pohjoisesplanadi date from the neo-Renaissance building phase of the 19th century. The commercial, bank and administrative buildings on either side of Esplanadi park are mainly from the first decades of the 20th century. Of the original building stock of Eteläesplanadi, only the former Governor-General's house, now the Government's ceremonial rooms, remains.

Among the oldest buildings on Bulevardi are the Old Church with its park, the Aleksanteri Theatre and the Sinebrychoff residence, now the art museum and brewery building complex. The character of Bulevardi as a location for state buildings is also shown by the school buildings of the late 19th century, for example the Kirkkopuisto girls' school and Bulevardi 16, the future European School. On the east side of Hietalahti square is the main building of the Polyteknillinen instituutti (Polytechnic Institute); the north side of the square is known as the Kaartin lasaretti, whose older parts of the building stock date from the 19th century. Bulevardi also has striking Art Nouveau residential buildings.

History

The Emperor declared Helsinki the capital of Finland in 1812 and confirmed a town plan based on a grid plan drawn up by Johan Albrecht Ehrenström.

Esplanadi and Bulevardi are essentially linked to the stages of Helsinki's growth. With the capital status and the re-planning, the city became a regularly built administrative centre, where public green areas formed specifically for that purpose were needed for both representative and recreational reasons. In Helsinki under Swedish rule there were no public recreational areas.

Ehrenström sketched Baroque compositions in the Esplanadi park, which in later plans by C.L. Engel were simplified into regular formal plantings. The Esplanadi planting area was completed in 1831, and Etelä- and Pohjoisesplanadi became a popular promenade for the upper classes.

Originally intended solely as a residential street, Eteläesplanadi acquired during the founding building phase of the capital one state building: the official residence of the Commander of the Finnish Army, designed by C.L. Engel, completed in 1824, and from 1840 to 1917 the residence of the Governor-General. The present building keeps Engel's design in its exterior appearance; its interiors are dominated mainly by the phase as the residence of the Governor-General. In the 1960s the building became the Valtioneuvoston juhlahuoneisto.

The completion of the railway in 1868 and the start of the city's industrialisation livened up construction in the 1870s. Four- to five-storey neo-Renaissance buildings for residential and commercial premises began to be built along Esplanadi and Bulevardi. The Grönqvist commercial palace on Pohjoisesplanadi, built in 1883 to designs by architect Theodor Höijer, was the largest continental European-type apartment block built in Helsinki up to that time. Retail trade began to concentrate on streets considered commercially advantageous; shopping street and residential street diverged from each other.

Many representative renewal phases, with their plantings and sculptures, reflect the symbolic significance of the Esplanadi park, particularly the placement of the Runeberg statue in the 1880s, as well as the continental architecture built to surround the park. The restaurant Kappeli was built at the eastern end of the Esplanadi park in 1867 to the design of architect A.H. Dalström and was extended in 1891. Svenska Teatern was built at the western end of Esplanadi in 1860 to the design of architect G.T. Chiewitz. A fire destroyed the building in 1863, after which the new theatre was built in 1866, partly using the old walls. The exterior was altered in the 1930s.

Esplanadi and Bulevardi are joined by Erottaja. At the corner of Esplanadi and Erottaja, the 8-storey Bensow commercial building with soapstone cladding, designed by architect Uno Ullberg, was completed in 1940. The commercial building belongs to the selection of masterpieces of Finnish modern architecture approved by the international DOCOMOMO organisation. At the junction of Erottaja and Bulevardi, the editorial office and production building of Keskuskirjapaino Oy was built at the beginning of the 20th century to designs by Lars Sonck.

Bulevardi was built parallel to the old street line in the unbuilt area of the suburb, which had a cemetery, a ruttopuisto and free land for public building.

The wooden suburban church built along Bulevardi in 1825-1826 to designs by C.L. Engel replaced the 18th-century Ulriika Eleonoora wooden church, which had been demolished to clear Senaatintori. The area of the old church park had been used as a temporary cemetery during the plague epidemic of 1710. The Kampi cemetery, established in the area in 1790, was in use until 1829, when the new cemetery in Lapinlahti was consecrated for use.

The Aleksanteri Theatre building was completed on Bulevardi in 1879 to the design of engineer colonel Koshperoff and was mainly used by Russian acting companies. The building was handed over in 1918 to the Suomalainen Ooppera. After the new opera house was completed on Mannerheimintie, the old opera remained as a stage for visiting theatre groups under the name Aleksanterin teatteri.

In 1819 the Russian merchant Nikolai Sinebrychoff was granted the right to acquire land and establish a brewery on the outer edge of the planned urban area in Hietalahti. A new residential building was completed alongside the brewery in 1842, where the Sinebrychoff taidemuseo is now housed. The park established in connection with the buildings was open to city dwellers from the outset. New industrial buildings were still being added to the area at the end of the 1960s, and the factory operated in Hietalahti until the 1990s. After that, the rest of the industrial area was also converted into residential and office plots.

The market hall on Hietalahti market square, which began operating in 1906, was designed by Selim A. Lindqvist. At the edge of the square, the building of the Polyteknillinen koulu, drawn by F.A. Sjöström, was completed in 1877. From 1908 it was the building of the Teknillinen korkeakoulu, and it was later extended on several occasions. The most important extensions to the main building took place in 1904 and at the end of the 1920s, when the main building acquired the form it has retained to the present day.