Kuopion lääninsairaala

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

The former provincial hospital of Kuopio is a characteristic part of the state's built heritage and at the same time belongs to the important public building stock of the historical provincial centres. The results of state planning and construction activity are regularly high-quality architecture, and also built heritage of nationally significant value in terms of their origins, their special functional characteristics and their periods of use.

The area of the former Kuopio provincial hospital on the shore of Valkeisenlampi, north of the city hospital, forms a whole of notable interest for the architectural history of hospitals and generally for the stages of state building administration. It consists of institutional buildings designed in the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus, whose exterior appearance is relatively well preserved. Among the area's important features is also the educational institution building completed in the early 1990s, whose contemporary architecture perfectly complements the otherwise historic buildings forming the whole.

History

A considerable part of the state's building activity in the 19th century and the early 20th century was connected with state premises and institutions located in the provincial capitals. In Kuopio these included, among others, the governor's residence, the provincial prison, the conscript army barracks area and the provincial hospital.

The Kuopio provincial hospital (established in the late 18th century) was moved in the 1810s to the site of the town's burnt post office, in the Lahdentaa area by Maljalahti. The new crown or provincial prison was placed next to the hospital, and its building project was initiated in the late 1810s. The wooden group of hospital buildings at Lahdentaa was completed by the early 1820s. The original wooden main building of the provincial hospital, later joined to the prison complex (in two phases, at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century), still survives. It is the building named Sakkola in the so-called wooden-house block of the present prison.

A project to obtain better premises for the provincial hospital was initiated in the 1860s. In 1867 the state redeemed an area from the town for the purpose, near Valkeisenlampi, between the grid plan area and the lake. The design of the new provincial hospital buildings began in the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus at about the same time. The new buildings, now of brick, were built in the 1870s so that the institution was ready in 1877. The building stock comprised, in addition to the main building and a fairly large two-storey hospital building, among others a single-storey residential building for the housekeeper.

An extension of the hospital with a surgical ward building was initiated as a project in the early years of the 20th century. The state compulsorily purchased land for the purpose from the town, on the south side of the existing institution. The new building was designed in the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus (chief designer Magnus Schjerfbeck). Construction took place in 1908-10. The imposing surgical ward building was placed parallel to Sairaalakatu so that its main façade forms a representative terminus to Kauppakatu. In the same building phase, a fairly large service building (originally kitchen, laundry and bakery premises) was built in the area, and the housekeeper's building from the 1870s was extended into a two-storey residential block for doctors.

The hospital has been used as a teaching institution for the field since 1959. In addition to the old building stock, the architectural character of the historic institutional area is also shaped by the educational institution that rose on the northern edge of the area in the early 1990s (Arkkitehtitoimisto Pekka Pitkänen Ky).

The hospital building of the 1870s, and the hospital and service building of the early 20th century, have been protected since 1994 under the decree on the protection of state-owned buildings.