The birth of Empire Helsinki
A part of Helsinki burned down in 1808. At that time, the city’s population numbered around 4,000. In 1812, Tsar Alexander I made Helsinki the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Significant investments were made in development, with the aim of creating a miniature version of Saint Petersburg – showcasing Russia to the West.
Saint Petersburg’s Empire style started to affect Helsinki’s neoclassical architecture when, in 1816, the German architect C.L. Engel, who had worked in Saint Petersburg, was invited to build Helsinki. The resulting light-colored city has been dubbed the pearl of the Baltic Sea or the white city of the North.
None of the Empire style wooden townhouses in Helsinki have retained their original facade. Most of Viola’s outdoor paneling, doors, windows, and wooden floors are original, but some later additions have been removed from the facade. The indoor technical equipment has been chosen bearing in mind the building’s current use.
Empire style windows were most commonly four or six-paned and cross framed. The architectural decorations were inspired by antiquity, and they were used on facades and in interior decoration; on tiled stoves, for example. The facades of these wood-framed residential buildings were not as grand as those of public buildings. As a typical villa of its era, Viola features a stone base and stone fire places. Planed, open-jointed panels cover log walls.
Viola’s story
Master Builder Gabriel Andsten constructed Viola in 1823. Viola was first erected as a residential building on Uudenmaankatu, and then sold to carpenter Johan Lindroos. Its next owner was the director of a brick factory in Sörnäinen, Counselor of Commerce Jegor Uschakoff, who sold the building to Carl Samuel Forssman after the factory shut down. In 1857, Paul, Nikolai and Natalia Canning bought the building. All the way from 1877 to the 1970s, Viola lodged Svenska Fruntimmerskolan’s principal and other staff. Until its demolition, the building remained one of the very last original Empire style wooden buildings in Helsinki.
The Empire style buildings moved to Kaisaniemi in 1991 are owned by the City of Helsinki, which in turn has handed them over for the University of Helsinki to use.