Kokkolan pedagogio ja Roosin talo (Pedagogiet i Karleby och Rooska gården)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The yläkaupunki (upper town) of Kokkola, within its 1660s grid plan area, has preserved a few historic landmark buildings. The Pedagogio, from the 1690s, is reportedly the oldest school building in our town and a secular wooden building. The neighbouring Roosin talo is a stone townhouse from the early 19th century, built for a prosperous Kokkola shipowner. The Pedagogio and Roosin talo, with their surroundings, are used as museums.

The red-ochre painted Pedagogio is a school building in Carolean baroque style with a hipped roof, and its ground plan is an eteiskamarillinen paritupa. The reconstruction of the log building's original appearance in the 1960s reflects the pedagogical restoration ideal. The Pedagogio complex includes the former headmaster's stone residence from 1818, and the two-storey so-called Lassander House from 1748, one of the oldest surviving houses in Kokkola. The two-storey log building, which was used by merchant families, was moved to its present site from Kustaa Aadolfin katu.

Roosin talo, built by Anders Roos the Younger, was on completion in 1813 the third stone building in the town of Kokkola and for a long time the town's largest and most handsome private house. The first yläalkeiskoulu in the town, which began operating in 1861, was housed on the upper floor of the house. The two-storey mansard-roofed house has features of Rococo and Neoclassicism.

Built at the same time as the main building of Roosin talo, on the northern edge of the plot, is a suolamakasiini (salt storehouse), the upper storey of which was built of stone after the fire that raged in the town in 1860. The facades of the salt storehouse were already rendered in their original form. The interior has been converted into small office rooms and an exhibition space.

History

There is mention of a town-maintained school operating in Kokkola as early as 1634. The pedagogio building in Kokkola was constructed in 1695-1696 through days of corvée labour by the burghers, after the earlier town schoolhouse, Kokkola's first, was found to be in poor condition. Drawings for the new building were ordered from Stockholm. The pedagogio provided elementary instruction, after which the wealthiest pupils could continue their studies at the triviaalikoulu in Vaasa or Oulu. The acquisition of the handsome school building in Kokkola was probably motivated by a hope of moving the triviaalikoulu from Vaasa to Kokkola.

The north room of the pedagogio was used for school purposes, and the south room served as a synodal hall where clergy meetings were held. The vestibule chamber probably served as living quarters for the school's teacher. The pedagogio's schoolroom was used by the ala-alkeiskoulu until 1867. After this the building served, among other purposes, as a night shelter for the poor, briefly returned to school use in the 1890s, and at the beginning of the 20th century was converted into a museum and library. The building was reconstructed in the 1960s to resemble its original appearance.

A separate teacher's residence on the pedagogio plot was found to be in poor condition in 1813, and the merchant Anders Roos, whose new town house had just been completed, was tasked with drawing up plans for new brick and stone buildings. The drawings were approved by the Intendentinkonttori in Stockholm, and the building was completed in 1816-1818.

Elementary instruction was reformed by imperial decree in 1841, after which the pedagogio became an ala-alkeiskoulu. A proposal to establish a triviaalikoulu in the town was made in 1838. The yläalkeiskoulu was ordered to be established in Kokkola in 1861, and the school began operations on the upper floor of the Roosin talo. The yläalkeiskoulu operated in the Roosin talo until 1866, when its new building was completed, and the ala-alkeiskoulu moved into the former premises of the yläalkeiskoulu in the Roosin talo.

The Roosin talo was probably built to plans drawn in Stockholm. By the middle of the 19th century, Kokkola was one of Finland's most prosperous towns thanks to the tar trade and shipbuilding yards, and numerous burghers' residences and public buildings were built in the town in the 18th and 19th centuries. Apart from the stone houses built by Anders Roos the Younger, no other stone houses were erected in the town in the first half of the 19th century, but rendering wooden buildings to resemble stone became common.

The outbuilding range on the Roosin talo plot was destroyed in the town fire of 1860, and the brick storehouse that stood south of the main building was demolished in the 1950s. The main building housed bank premises in 1960, and in 1963 the town bought the house and an art museum was opened on the upper floor. The building underwent major renovation in the 1980s under the direction of architect Krister Korpela, during which some interior paintings were restored and doorways were returned to their presumed original positions.