Vartiovuorenpuisto, Turun Akatemian observatorio ja Luostarinmäen käsityöläiskorttelit (Vårdbergsparken, Observatoriet och hantverkarkvarteren på Klosterbacken)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Vartiovuori is one of the country's oldest and most historically valuable municipal urban parks. The townscape of Turku is dominated, at the highest point of Vartiovuori, by the neoclassical former observatory of the Turku Academy, which is architecturally and historically significant in terms of learning. On the southern slope of the park is the craftsmen's block area that survived the Turku fire of 1827, which has been formed into the Luostarinmäki open-air museum, reflecting 18th-century urban structure and construction.

Vartiovuorenpuisto is an application of the Central European landscape style in a small-scale Nordic landscape. Its closest models are the contemporary so-called hill parks of Tukholma. The views opening from the hill have been incorporated into the park composition and an effort has been made to keep them open, although the building surrounding the park has also closed them off. The park has become an important townscape element. Other examples of this design idea are the Helsingin Tähtitornin puisto and Kaivopuisto, as well as Puolalanmäki in Turku.

The exterior architecture of the Turku Academy observatory is restrained, and interior decoration is concentrated in the vaulted rotunda on the second floor. The original function of the building is reflected in the south-facing rotunda and the round observation tower, topped by a stepped dome.

Several early 20th-century buildings border Vartiovuorenpuisto. The park entrance on Kaskenkatu is bordered by the Jugend-style apartment blocks Pantern and Hjorten, designed by architect F. Strandell. On the Vartiovuorenkatu side are the Jugend-style Spoof apartment palace (A.R. Spoof and A. Nyström 1900), used by Åbo Akademi, and Villa Solaris (architectural office Jung & Jung 1939-1941). Hemmet is an old people's home built in 1932-1933 and 1936-1937 according to drawings signed by August Krook and Eskil Hindersson. On the south-western slope of the hill is the stone building of Gadolin's laboratory from 1798, which predates the Turku town fire.

On the southern slope of Vartiovuori is the craftsmen's block Luostarinmäki, representing 18th-century urban structure and construction. Once a remote area, it survived the Turku town fire. The building stock of Luostarinmäki consists of small craftsmen's dwellings built in the 18th century, in which a museum presenting craftsmen's domestic culture and various craft workshops has been furnished. The dwellings and small yard buildings, together with their street-side fences, form enclosed courtyards. The craftsmen's blocks were opened to the public as the Luostarinmäki craftsmen's museum in 1940.

History

On the Vartiovuori hill the Turun Akatemia observatory was built in 1817-1819. It was the first observatory in Finland. The first plans had been drawn up by the architect Charles Bassi, but construction was carried out to the drawings of the architect C.L. Engel. In its original use the building served for only twelve years, before the Turun Akatemia, together with its astronomical instruments, was moved to Helsinki after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827.

After the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, in the grid plan drawn up by the architect C.L. Engel, the rocky outcrops and hills were left undeveloped and reserved for planting. Vartiovuorenpuisto originated in the 1840s from an initiative of the residents of the town of Turku and through their joint efforts. Building the park on the rocky hill required a great deal of work during the first ten years. The general plan for the park was drawn up in 1872 by Mårten Gabriel Stenius, the first Finnish designer of large-scale gardens, and by the architect F.A. Sjöström. The park's final implementation was based on this plan, under the leadership of Oskar Rudolf Gauffin, Turku's first city gardener, in the 1880s. The park's restaurant and bandstand were demolished in the 1960s. A new summer theatre was built in 2000 on the site of the old one, which had been built in the 1950s.

In 1836 the Turku navigation school moved into the observatory and operated there until 1967. Only minor changes were made to the building over its 160 years. The observatory tower was restored for the use of the maritime museum and the astronomical collections in 1978-1985. On the site of the fire tower, which had been built beside the observatory tower in the early 1830s, Turku's first water reservoir and a service building, the so-called ”delfiinipaviljonki”, with facades of soapstone and brick, were completed in 1903. The service building was converted into a transformer station, and the reservoir into a storage and exhibition space for the maritime museum.