Main Building of the University of Helsinki

Brief information

The main building of the University of Helsinki stands on the western side of Senate Square as a counterpart to the Senate building opposite. This pairing is more important than the individual facade: the university is included in the square’s overall design, where the buildings respond to one another in form and position.

The building’s appearance was connected not with ordinary expansion, but with the fire in Turku: after the destruction of the building of Finland’s oldest institution of higher education, the university needed a new home. The building opened in 1832 and later grew to the size of an entire city block. Military history can also be read through the building: in 1944, a large part of the old university was destroyed, and the assembly hall almost disappeared, reopening only in 1948.

What to notice right away

It is worth comparing the university’s main facade with the Senate building on the other side of the square: the similarity is not accidental; it makes the square strict and symmetrical. This device refers to Capitoline Square in Rome, which the architect Carl Engel used as a model in his design.

On the building itself, the main key is the Greek references. The Ionic columns on the facade are connected with the theme of science and art; on the first floor they echo the columns of the Erechtheion, and on the second, those of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis. The interior arrangement continues the same line: the vestibule is described as a two-storey open peristyle, while the assembly hall resembles a Greek theatre. By the main facade stands the monument “Helsinki,” created for the university’s anniversary: beside the classical building, it marks a later layer of history.