place

Norrmén house

Buildings and structures demolished in 1960Buildings and structures in HelsinkiDemolished buildings and structures in FinlandKatajanokka
Uspenskin katedraali ja Norrménin talo 1959
Uspenskin katedraali ja Norrménin talo 1959

The Norrmén house, also known as the Norrmén castle and palace, was a red brick residential house representing the neo-renaissance architecture, situated for 63 years in Katajanokka, Helsinki, Finland, opposite the Uspenski Cathedral. It was designed by architect Theodor Höijer for the chairman of the Helsinki city council, Alfred Norrmén, who ordered the building plans from Höijer in 1896. The four-floor building was constructed at a fast pace, and the building was already completed in 1897. The top floor of the building contained high-class large apartments, while the much smaller apartments on the bottom floor were mainly reserved for servants. Alfred Norrmén himself lived in the building until his death in 1942. The building also hosted the Eastern Emigrants Club and its restaurant until 1944, when it was discontinued. Later the building hosted the Allied Commission. The Norrmén house was dismantled in 1960. The Enso-Gutzeit (currently Stora Enso) main office, built from white marble and designed by Alvar Aalto, was built in its place. It was completed in 1962. The dismantling of the house has been criticised ever since the year of its dismantling, and many view Aalto's new building in its place as completely unfit for the façade of Katajanokka, and the dismantling of the Norrmén house as one of the greatest wrongdoings in the history of Helsinki. Some have even proposed that Aalto's building should be dismantled and a replica of the Norrmén house should be built in its place. However, the city of Helsinki, along with the National Board of Antiquities is strongly in favour of preserving the main office building. In the 2004 film Pelikaanimies, directed by Liisa Helminen, the Norrmén house has been digitally built back in its place.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Norrmén house (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Norrmén house
Kanavaranta, Helsinki Katajanokka (Southern major district)

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Norrmén houseContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 60.167777777778 ° E 24.958611111111 °
placeShow on map

Address

Stora Enso

Kanavaranta 1
00160 Helsinki, Katajanokka (Southern major district)
Finland
mapOpen on Google Maps

Uspenskin katedraali ja Norrménin talo 1959
Uspenskin katedraali ja Norrménin talo 1959
Share experience

Nearby Places

Main Guard Post, Helsinki
Main Guard Post, Helsinki

The Main Guard Post (Finnish: Päävartio) is a guard post building and a city block in the district of Kruununhaka in Helsinki, Finland, in connection with the Presidential Palace at Mariankatu 1. The buildings in the block mostly date from 1843. As well as the guard post building, the block includes the financial building of the Presidential building, containing offices, maintenance spaces, garages and apartments. The building is most often cited as designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, but sometimes by Eduard von Anert.From 1820 to 1840 the Main Guard Post was located at the base of the Helsinki Cathedral. This former Main Guard Post building was dismantled in 1836 as it was seen that detaining prisoners, the main purpose of the Main Guard Post, was not something fit near a church.When the Heidenstrauch house was renovated into the Imperial Palace (and later into the Presidential Palace) in 1843, the Main Guard Post was also moved in connection with it. Historically, the Main Guard Post has been the central guard post of the Helsinki garrison, acting as a post to guard the most important military targets, military behaviour and the overall situation of military targets. It has also been used to detain soldiers detained because of, for example, absence without leave or consumption of alcohol.Both the main guard post and the financial building remain in almost their original use to this day. The main guard post hosts offices for the Helsinki garrison. The disused prison cells now serve as break rooms for the guards.The most visible part of the Main Guard Post is the guard in front of its main entrance. Enlisted men serving as guards are selected from the military police serving in the Guard Jaeger Regiment. The guard is present at the entrance from 07:45 in the morning to 22:00 in the evening and one guard shift lasts an hour at the most, only 20 minutes in cold winter weather. During their shift, guards must stand absolutely still. Some guards have felt dizzy or even fainted during their shift. The guards carry assault rifles on their backs but these have been disabled so that they can not be actually fired. This is because of safety reasons: if someone were to steal a guard's rifle, they could not use it to fire.During the Finnish Civil War, the Main Guard Post was one of the last bastions of the Reds in Helsinki. In 1918 the building was also used to retain political prisoners. A metal disc attached to the door of a prison cell signified the background of the prisoner: a red disc meant a political prisoner, a blue disc meant a criminal.The building is listed on the Finnish Building Heritage Register.

Borgström Tobacco Factory
Borgström Tobacco Factory

The Borgström Tobacco Factory was a tobacco manufacturing center located at Meritullinkatu 1 in Kruununhaka, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland, from 1839 onwards. The Borgström company was founded by trade advisor Henrik Borgström (Senior) in 1834. The factory ceased operations in 1928.The factory's two-story stone building finished in 1857, took eighteen years to complete, and was later expanded into a large complex with additional buildings finished in 1865, 1873 and 1888. After Henrik Borgström's death, the company passed to his son, the trade advisor Johan Leonard Borgström, and in 1903 to his son, Arthur Travers-Borgström. The factory operated from 1904 as a limited company under the name H. Borgström J:r Tobaksfabrik Ab, and it was the largest tobacco factory in Helsinki at the beginning of the twentieth century. It counted some 700 employees in 1913, with an annual production value of 4 million marks. The factory's cigarette brands included Kaukasiska, Kalif Prima, Odessa, and Tilaus, as well as the most famous cigar brand, Fennia. The factory also produced pipe tobacco. The factory was further expanded to the side of Meritullintor with a five-story building completed in 1904, designed by Waldemar Aspelin.During the Finnish Civil War, in connection with the occupation of Helsinki in April 1918, the end building of the tobacco factory and the cell wing building of the main garrison in Helsinki, located to the south, were damaged by artillery fire from the German navy.In 1919, the company's shares were transferred to Ab Ph. U. Strengberg & C:o Oy, who owned the who owned the Strengberg tobacco factory. The operation of the Borgström tobacco factory ended in August 1928 and the company was merged with Strengberg in 1929. The property on Meritullinkatu remained Strengberg's ownership, and between 1946 and 1966 the property was owned by Oy Armiro Ab, to whom Strengberg's real estate was sold in 1946. In 1966, the properties owned by Armiro were sold to Finnish tobacco tycoon Gilbert von Rettig (1928–1994).