Location: Kruunnunhaka, Helsinki
Trolley: 1, 1A, 2, 3B, 3T, 4,
7A, 7B
Bus: 16
Senatintori (Swedish: Senatstorget) is a market located in the
heart of Helsinki and the historic central square of Helsinki. It is
surrounded by numerous valuable buildings, such as the Helsinki
Cathedral, the Government Palace and the main building of the
University of Helsinki. In the center of the square is the statue of
Alexander II. Senate Square with its cathedrals is Helsinki's most
famous symbol and one of the city's most popular tourist
destinations. Aleksanterinkatu, Unioninkatu, Snellmaninkatu run
along the edges of the square, and Hallituskatu on the northern edge
in front of the steps of the Cathedral.
Senate Square was
created in the first half of the 19th century by the planners of
Helsinki's monumental center, urban planner Johan Albrecht
Ehrenström and architect Carl Ludvig Engel, on the site where the
modest Suurtori with its buildings had previously been located.
Senate Square and its surroundings form the old core of
Helsinki. The oldest buildings in the inner city are located in its
area, such as the Sederholm House, completed in 1757.
The center of Helsinki has been located in the Senatintor area since
the city was moved to its current location in 1640. During Swedish rule,
the city's Keskustori Suurtori was located in the southeast corner of
the current Senate Square, which was bordered by the city's public
buildings, the town hall, a trivial school and the main guard. On its
southern edge ran the main street Suurkatu (now Aleksanterinkatu), along
which were the houses of the richest burghers. On the west side of the
square was the city church, which was surrounded by a cemetery area.
A total of three churches were located on the site of Senate Square.
The first was the brick Kristiina church, which was built at the end of
the 1640s, but was destroyed along with the rest of the city in a fire
on August 5, 1654. At the same time, the original town hall also burned
down. After the stone church was destroyed, a wooden church of the Holy
Spirit was built in its place. The city was destroyed again during the
Great Enmity, when the Swedish troops retreating from Helsinki burned
the city in May 1713. After peace came, Ulrika Eleonora's church was
built, which was inaugurated in 1727.
At the beginning of the
19th century, the area of Suurtor was in the shape it had received
during the previous century, after the Great Hatred that razed the city
to the ground. Although the city consisted almost entirely of wooden
houses, the most important public buildings and the houses of the
richest burghers were already made of stone. Toria was dominated by two
stone buildings, the town hall (1804) on its northern edge and the
trivial school (1759) on its eastern edge. On the western edge of the
square was a low main guard building, behind which the cemetery area
began. Ulrika Eleonora's church, which rose in the cemetery, was a
wooden cross church with a mansard roof, which was named after the Queen
of Sweden. The church ground had become full at the end of the 1780s,
but people were still buried in the old family graves at the beginning
of the 19th century. Along Suurkatu, south of the market, there was a
row of stone merchant houses, such as Sederholm's house and Bock's
house.
When Helsinki was made the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland in
1812, it was started to be built into a representative administrative
city. The task was given to the Helsinki-born courtier Johan Albrecht
Ehrenström and the German architect Carl Ludvig Engel. Ehrenström acted
as the director of the reconstruction committee of Helsinki and drew a
new square plan for the city, in accordance with the ideals of
neoclassicism, while Engel designed the most important buildings.
The focal point of the new Helsinki designed by Ehrenström was the
monumental square Senatintori, which was placed on the site of the old
Suurtor. The market trade that used to be carried out at Suurtor was
moved to Kauppatori and Senatintor was made into a purely representative
space. When designing the new square, Ehrenström was influenced by
European squares realized in the neoclassical style, above all
Stockholm's Kustaa Aadolf Square. In accordance with these examples,
Ehrenström emphasized symmetry, so that the northern edge of the square
had to be symmetrical in proportions, and the buildings placed on the
east and west sides of the square also had to have symmetrical facades.
Ehrenström's original outline for Senate Square differed from the
version that was finally realized. He saved the old town hall in the
northeast corner of the square, although it was modified into a
neoclassical style, and placed it as a symmetrical counterpart to the
post office in the northwest corner of the square. These buildings were
connected to each other by a long and low main guard, and behind them on
the rock north of the market square rose the main Lutheran church.
Ehrenström placed the Senate House on the eastern edge of the square and
the Governor General's Palace on the western edge. The old bourgeois
houses on the southern edge were allowed to remain, but their facades
had to be modernized so that they would fit into the square's
neoclassical milieu.
The construction of Senate Square meant the destruction of the
old center of the city. The old public buildings up to Ulriika
Eleonoora's church were demolished in 1827 after the new church
building (now the Old Church) was completed, and the area of Suurtor
and the cemetery was leveled to form the base of the new market. The
deceased in the cemetery were not moved, so the graves of Helsinki
residents from the 17th and 18th centuries are still under the
square and Aleksanterinkatu. Even in the 2000s, bones have come to
light in connection with construction work. Although Ehrenström had
saved the town hall in his original plan, its preservation was
quickly perceived as problematic, and it was destroyed at the end of
the 1830s, i.e. as soon as the city administration was able to move
to new premises.
Engel's first work at Senate Square was the
renovation of the Bock house, which was part of the old bourgeois
houses on the south side, into a temporary 1816–1819
governor-general's palace. Other bourgeois houses were also
modernized according to Engel's plans. In 1819, a long and low main
guard building was completed on the northern edge of the square. The
first real effort for Engel, however, was the design of the Senate
House built between 1818 and 1820. It was the first of three
monumental buildings planned for the square, and it was to define
the final architectural character of the entire square. Engel was
satisfied with the end result and later referred to the Senate House
as his masterpiece.
In 1828, the university was ordered to
move from Turku to Helsinki. The western edge of the Senate square
was originally reserved for the governor general's palace, but since
the Bock house intended as a temporary palace was deemed sufficient
for the governor general, it was decided to reserve the western edge
of the square for the university. The university's main building was
completed in 1832, and in accordance with Ehrenström's rules of
symmetry, its facade was identical to that of the opposite Senate
building. In 1840, the university library was completed in the block
on the north side of the main building.
The last of the
Senate Square buildings to be completed was the Lutheran main
church, located on the rock to the north. Engel designed the church
for a decade and refined its style to be as elegant and reduced as
possible. However, the look of the church changed decisively during
the construction work that started in 1830 and lasted for two
decades. On the order of the emperor and to Engel's chagrin, a
monumental staircase leading down to Senate Square was built in
front of the church, in the way of which the main guardhouse was
demolished. This broke Ehrenström and Engel's original plan,
according to which the square was to be surrounded by a closed
building mass on all sides. After Engel's death in 1840, Ernst
Bernhard Lohrmann took charge of the construction of the church, who
made more changes to its drawings. The church was inaugurated in
1852, when the original construction phase of Senate Square can be
considered finished.
Change
Senate Square is a popular
tourist destination, and in warm weather, the steps of the church
are a popular place to sit for locals as well. Right next to
Senatintor are also the popular destinations Kauppatori, Esplanadi
park and Uspenski Cathedral.
As part of the revitalization of
the city's old center, in recent years old valuable properties in
Senatintor have been repaired for restaurant and other business
purposes. On the south side of the market are the so-called market
blocks.