Raahen seminaari

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The Raahe women's seminary is one of the teacher training seminaries from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which were the results of the state's nationwide building project and of planning by the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus.

The buildings of the Raahe seminary of 1899, situated in a park-like setting, include, among others, the former headmistresses' residence (single-storey wooden building), the main building (two-storey building, brick at the lower level and timber-framed at the upper level), the practice school (school building, brick at the lower level and timber-framed at the upper level), the headmaster's residence (single-storey wooden building), and the sauna (former laundry, sauna and bakehouse building, single-storey brick building).

Following the closure of the seminary in 1971, a technical-sector vocational school has begun operating in the area.

History

Finland's first seminary for training teachers was founded in 1863 in Jyväskylä. It was followed by the Swedish-language seminaries at Tammisaari and Uusikaarlepyy, and the Sortavala seminary.

The second phase of the seminary system took place in the 1890s, when the need for seminaries increased after the seminary examination became the qualification requirement for all teachers in 1890. At that time the Raahe women's seminary, the Rauma men's seminary, the Heinola women's seminary and the Kajaani men's seminary were founded. The locations were chosen to be as far as possible from the previous seminary towns.

The decree on the Raahe women teachers' seminary was issued on 29.4.1896. In August 1897 the Senate confirmed the drawings prepared by extraordinary architect Werner Polón in the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus. Construction, which began in the same month, continued until September 1899, although the institution could already be opened for use in 1898. In the first phase the seminary comprised about ten buildings, and its building stock has largely survived to the present.

The seminary institutions at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries differed from their predecessors above all in that they were no longer co-educational seminaries. Male students began to be admitted to the Raahe seminary in 1951.

The Raahe seminary differed from earlier seminaries in architecture: while large stone buildings were built in Jyväskylä and the buildings in Sortavala were entirely of wood, the Raahe seminary buildings are partly of brick and partly of wood. The premises of the Raahe seminary were repaired in the 1920s-1930s, and in the 1950s the practice school received new premises. The new main building was completed in 1959 to the design of architect R.V. Luukkonen.