This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2022) |
University of Helsinki Botanical Garden | |
---|---|
Location | Helsinki, Finland |
Coordinates | 60°10′20″N24°56′51″E / 60.17222°N 24.94750°E |
The University of Helsinki Botanical Garden is an institution subordinate to the Finnish Museum of Natural History of the University of Helsinki, which maintains a collection of live plants for use in research and teaching. The Botanical Garden has two separate sites: one in Kaisaniemi [1] and one in Kumpula. [2]
The Kaisaniemi Garden is open to the public. Its greenhouse is currently home to more than 800 different species of plants and its grounds to more than 2,800 plants of different origins.
Construction on the Kumpula Garden started in 1987 [2] and opened to the public in 2009.
In 1763, Governor Hans Henrik Böje rented a plot of land from the city of Helsinki bordered by Hämeen maantie (nowadays Siltasaarenkatu) and started a garden on it. In 1773, control of the garden was handed over to gardener Erik Edbom. When Helsinki became the capital in 1812, the garden became a municipal garden. Later on, in 1827, work on transforming the garden into a walking area for the denizens of Helsinki commenced according to plans drawn up by Carl Ludvig Engel. His plans divided the park into two distinct areas: a symmetrical, tree-lined park and a landscaped garden formed by winding paths. In 1829, the walking area was pared back once the Imperial Academy of Turku Botanical Garden moved next to it after the Great Fire hit Turku and the Imperial Academy relocated to Helsinki.
The University of Helsinki Botanical Garden has its roots in the Imperial Academy of Turku Botanical Garden, which was established by Professor Elias Tillandz in 1678. Tillandz’ garden was a small garden for growing cabbages and medicinal plants. After Tillandz’ death, the garden was left to its own demise until Professor Pehr Kalm took responsibility for it. The garden started to flourish as Kalm brought hundreds of useful plants with him from North America. When the Imperial Academy of Turku relocated to Helsinki in 1828, it was allocated a piece of land in Kaisaniemi that had previously served as common pasture for the people of Helsinki. Professor of Zoology and Botany Carl Reinhold Sahlberg started construction on a new garden, relying on his extensive private collection that was not destroyed in the Great Fire of Turku. Head Gardener Franz Faldermann of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden was commissioned to design the botanical garden. According to his plan, the garden had two separate areas: gardens and a park-like arboretum. He also planned the greenhouse buildings, of which the first was completed in 1832. Sahlberg served as the first head and organizer of the botanical garden, whose ambitious goal was to create collections of all of the plants in Finland and as many of the non-Finnish plants that thrived in Finland.
The wooden, single-storey main building designed by Engel was built in the middle of the garden by 1831. In the 1850s, it was expanded according to plans by Jean Wik . The wood building was moved out of the way of the new main building. In its new location, it became the gardeners’ living quarters, which is the purpose it still serves today. Wiik planned an Empire style bakehouse for the garden and a fence to protect the garden from the cows grazing in pasture nearby. Engel also planned a joint Gothic stable and cow barn, which has already been demolished.
The botanical garden's current buildings are the handiwork of Architect Gustaf Nyström, as the original greenhouses designed by Faldermann were replaced at the end of the 19th century with new greenhouses designed by Nyström. Unlike Faldermann's greenhouses, Nyström's were made of wrought iron. In 1889, the large, tropical Palm House with its glass roof was finished and in 1896 the rest of the greenhouses. In 1903, construction on the institute building housing the Botanical Department and the Botanical Museum that Nyström had designed to replace the original main building now serving as the gardeners’ living quarters and the professor's living quarters was finished. The Botanical Museum is still housed in the same building. The gardeners’ building was relocated to the western border of the botanical garden. Furthermore, wooden buildings from the 19th century were moved to the northern border of the garden from elsewhere in Helsinki during the 1990s.
During the Continuation War, the garden was hit by three bombs and the greenhouses were damaged. As a result, all of the more than 1,500 taxa in the greenhouses, with the exception of a single cypress and the seeds of a water-lily, died due to freezing temperatures. The seeds survived at the bottom of the water-lily pool and the current water-lily in the pool is the descendant of that water-lily.
In the 1950s, the greenhouses were restored and modernized and from 1996 to 1998, they were refurbished once again. The Kaisaniemi Garden and its greenhouses will continue to be used for exhibitions and research.
In the 20th century, the university's botanical garden started to run out of space, so when the decision was made to split the university into four separate campus areas in the 1970s, a plot of land for a new botanical garden was set aside on the Kumpula Campus.
The boundaries of the Kumpula Garden were drawn in 1987. The new garden was built in the former garden of the Kumpula Manor. It opened to public in 2009. The garden is divided up into two separate sections: one for useful plants and one where the plants are arranged according to their geographical origin. The plants are gathered from areas that have climates similar to that of southern Finland, e.g., from Europe, North America and the Far East.
The University of Helsinki is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Tsar Alexander I. The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available. In 2020, around 31,600 students were enrolled in the degree programs of the university spread across 11 faculties and 11 research institutes.
Pehr Kalm, also known as Peter Kalm, was a Swedish explorer, botanist, naturalist, and agricultural economist. He was one of the most important apostles of Carl Linnaeus.
Lars Eliel Sonck was a Finnish architect. He graduated from Helsinki Polytechnic Institute in 1894 and immediately won a major design competition for a church in Turku, St Michael's Church, ahead of many established architects. The church was designed in the prevailing neo-Gothic style. However, Sonck's style would soon go through a dramatic change, in the direction of Art Nouveau and National Romanticism that was moving through Europe at the end of the 19th century. During the 1920s, Sonck would also design a number of buildings in the emerging Nordic Classicism style.
The Kumpula Campus is a science campus of the University of Helsinki. The campus is located some four kilometres from the centre of Helsinki, in the Kumpula district. Completed in 2005, it currently provides study and research facilities for about 6,000 students and 1,000 teachers/researchers.
Carl Reinhold Sahlberg was a Finnish naturalist, primarily an entomologist specializing in beetles. He was the father of entomologist Reinhold Ferdinand Sahlberg (1811-1874), grandfather of entomologist Johan Reinhold Sahlberg (1845-1920), and great grandfather of Uunio Saalas (1882-1969).
The Great Fire of Turku was a conflagration in the city of Turku in 1827. It is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The city had faced several large fires before, including an especially devastating fire in 1681.
The architecture of Finland has a history spanning over 800 years, and while up until the modern era the architecture was highly influenced by Sweden, there were also influences from Germany and Russia. From the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield: first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country and then when the Finnish architect profession became established.
Vartiovuori Observatory is a former observatory in Turku, Finland. The observatory, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, was originally built for the Royal Academy of Turku. The neoclassical building was completed in 1819. The observatory is situated atop the Vartiovuori hill, and it is clearly visible from different sides of the city centre.
The Finnish Museum of Natural History, established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natural history museum responsible for the national botanical, zoological, geological and paleontological collections, which consist of samples from around the world. The collections serve scientific, public informational and educational purposes.
Kumpula is a verdant neighbourhood in Helsinki, bordered by Eastern Pasila to the west, Vallila to the south, Käpylä and Koskela to the north and Toukola and Arabianranta to the east. As of January 1, 2003, Kumpula had approximately 3,600 inhabitants.
Bengt Michael Schalin was a well-known garden architect and botanist in Finland during the 20th century.
Christian von Steven was a Finnish-born Russian botanist and entomologist.
Helsinki University Observatory housed the Department of Astronomy at the University of Helsinki, south Finland until end of 2009. It is now an astronomy-themed visitor centre and museum.
The Old Academy Building is a neoclassical building, originally consecrated in 1817 for the Royal Academy of Turku in Turku, Finland. It is located in Cathedral Square next to Turku Cathedral. The building was designed by Swedish architect Carl Christoffer Gjörwell.
Carl Niclas von Hellens was a Finnish botanist.
Gustaf Nyström was a Finnish architect. Nyström has been described as one of the most important architects in Finland at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He was active both as an influential teacher, as an architect in his own right, and as an official involved in groundbreaking urban planning projects.
The Sibelius Museum is a museum of music, named after the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The museum is located close to Turku Cathedral in the historical city centre of Turku on the southwest coast of Finland. It is the only museum devoted to music in Finland. The museum houses a wide collection of historical music instruments from around the world. The archives of the museum include documents The museum was first founded during the 1920s as a seminar for the Department of Musicology at Åbo Akademi University, and has later developed into its own department. The Museum is currently organised and funded by the Åbo Akademi Foundation. The current building was built and opened in 1968 and it was designed by architect Woldemar Baeckman.
Esa Erkki Piironen is a Finnish architect. He studied architecture at Helsinki University of Technology, qualifying as an architect in 1970. He studied architecture and urban design in North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was awarded the Master of Architecture in 1972. He was working as a teaching assistant at Helsinki University of Technology 1972–81, and was awarded Licentiate in Technology in 1978. Visiting professor at Guangdong University of Technology School of Art and Design starting from 2012.
Fredrik Nylander was a Finnish physician and botanist who was among the first to study the plants of Finland, describing about eleven new species.
The Turku barracks was a barracks building for the military of Russia built in 1833 in Kamppi, Helsinki, Finland, along the street Läntinen Henrikinkatu.