Master Builder August Pettersson and Master Builder Frans Johansson
The National Museum of Finland (Finnish: Suomen kansallismuseo, Swedish: Finlands Nationalmuseum) is a museum in Helsinki presenting Finnish history from the Stone Age to the present day, through objects and cultural history. The Finnish National Romantic style building is located at Mannerheimintie 34 in central Helsinki and is a part of the Finnish Heritage Agency (until 2018 the National Board of Antiquities) (Finnish: Museovirasto, Swedish: Museiverket), under the Ministry of Culture and Education.[1]
The building of the National Museum was designed by the architect company Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen. The appearance of the building reflects Finland's medieval churches and castles. The architecture belongs to national romanticism and the interior mainly to art nouveau. The museum was built from 1905 to 1910 and opened to the public in 1916.[2] The museum was named the Finnish National Museum after Finland's independence in 1917. After the last thorough renovation, the Museum was re-opened in July 2000.[3]
The museum's entrance hall ceiling has ceiling frescoes in the national epic Kalevala theme, painted by Akseli Gallén-Kallela, which can be seen without an entrance fee. The frescoes, painted in 1928, are based on the frescoes painted by Gallén-Kallela in the Finnish Pavilion of the Paris World Fair in 1900.[3]
Akseli Gallen-Kallela's 1928 frescoes in the entrance hall
The permanent exhibitions of the National Museum are divided into parts. There are collections of coins, medals, orders and decorations, silver, jewellery and weapons. There is prehistory of Finland, the development of Finnish society and culture from the Middle Ages 12th century to the early 20th century through the Swedish Kingdom Period to the Russian Empire Era, and Finnish folk culture in the 18th and 19th centuries with life in the countryside before the industrialisation among other exhibitions.
The collections also included the Mesa Verde artifacts from the cliff dwellings of Colorado. These were donated to the museum by the Finland Swedish explorer Gustaf Nordenskiöld. They comprised the most-extensive collection of Mesa Verde items outside the United States and one of the largest collections of native Americana outside the American continents.[4] In 2019 it was decided to return a portion of the artifacts to the representatives of the indigenous people of the United States of America, with it agreed for some 600 items to be kept and exhibited.[5][6]
Gas explosion in the Silver Room
On 23 January 2006 an explosion occurred at the National Museum in the Silver Room, which was caused by methane leaking into a broom cupboard from the drainage through dried floor drain and lit by a spark from the power distribution cabinet in the cleaning closet. There were two possible sources for the methane; a leak from a gas pipe under the nearby Museokatu street, or gas that developed on its own in the sewer. Later, police investigations found the cause to be a gas pipe leak. Most display cases and 49 pieces out of more than 200 silver objects in the museum's Silver Room were damaged in the explosion, although most of them only mildly. Nobody was hurt.[7][8] All objects were successfully repaired the same year. The Silver Room was re-opened to the public in early 2007.
In Finnish mythology, the Sampo is a magical device or object described in many different ways that was constructed by the blacksmith Ilmarinen and that brought riches and good fortune to its holder, akin to the horn of plenty (cornucopia) of Greek mythology. When the Sampo was stolen, Ilmarinen's homeland fell upon hard times. He sent an expedition to retrieve it, but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea.
Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He changed his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.
Hugo Gerhard Simberg was a Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist.
Jorma Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish artist. He followed in the footsteps of his father, the famed artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela.
Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has the biggest collections of classical art in Finland. Before 1991 the Ateneum building also housed the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and University of Art and Design Helsinki.
The National Romantic style was a Nordic architectural style that was part of the National Romantic movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is often considered to be a form of Art Nouveau.
The Gallen-Kallela Museum, located in Tarvaspää, Espoo, Finland, and built between 1911 and 1913 was a home and studio for Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The atelier building has been a museum since 1961.
Finnish National Gallery is the largest art museum institution of Finland. It consists of the Ateneum, an art museum; Kiasma, a contemporary art museum; and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, a historic house and art museum.
Laajalahti is a district of Espoo, a city in Finland. It belongs to the area of Suur-Tapiola together with Westend, Tapiola, Pohjois-Tapiola, Otaniemi, Niittykumpu, Mankkaa, and Haukilahti. It gets its name from the bay on which it is located. Laajalahti belongs to three sectors; Laajaranta, Lupauksenvuori, and Ruukinranta.
The Old Student House is the former student house of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, located in central Helsinki, Finland, near the crossing of Aleksanterinkatu and Mannerheimintie.
The Defense of the Sampo is a tempera-on-canvas Romantic national painting created in 1896 by Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The painting illustrates a passage from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century.
Jusélius Mausoleum is one of the most famous sights in Pori, Finland, at the Käppärä Cemetery. It is the only mausoleum in Finland and was completed in 1903.
Pori Art Museum, is a museum of contemporary and modern art in Pori, Finland. It was established in 1979, mainly by the efforts of professor Maire Gullichsen, co-founder of the furniture company Artek. Pori Art Museum has several art collections as well as changing exhibitions.
Carl Johan Bengts was a Finnish-Swedish painter in the Modernist style who specialized in rural themes.
Finnish art started to form its individual characteristics in the 19th century, when romantic nationalism began to rise in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland.
Kullervo Sets Off for War is a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela from the year 1901. He painted the subject in tempera painting and as a fresco which is located in the music hall of Old Student House of Helsinki University.
The Kirpilä Art Collection is an art museum in Helsinki.
Tyrvää was a municipality in the Satakunta region, Turku and Pori Province, Finland. It was established in 1439 when the Tyrvää parish was separated from the parish of Karkku. In 1915, the market town of Vammala was separated from Tyrvää, and in 1973, Tyrvää was consolidated with Vammala. In 2009, Vammala became a part of the newly established town Sastamala.
Parisian Backyard is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1884 by Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The work is 28 × 23 cm in size and belongs to the Ateneum, part of the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, where it was donated in 1945.
The Kalevala House was a planned huge building designed by Eliel Saarinen for the Kalevala Society in Helsinki, Finland in 1921, which was never built. It was to be built at the top of Munkkiniemi, close to the current Hotel Kalastajatorppa. The Kalevala House was to become not only the premises of the Kalevala Society, but also a center of Finnish culture: it would have included a Finnish cultural research institute, exhibition spaces, artists' workspaces and "research chambers". In addition, Finnish great men and Fennomen would have been buried in the crypt at the foot of the 80-meter-high main tower.
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Bear statue by Emil Wikström, 1910
The tower
The other side of the building
Small turret
Another turret with animal reliefs
Front door
Back door
