Architecture has always fascinated me. I've been travelling around and I've noticed that many countries have their star architects that shape the image and the face of the city. Hundertwasser in Vienna or Gaudi in Barcelona, to mention just 2 of them, have created real tourist attractions in these cities.
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Hundertwasserhaus apartment building in Vienna
Photo from www.carlton.at |
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Gaudi Battló house in Barcelona
Photo from www.tourspain.org |
Well, Helsinki has 2 "landmark" architects: brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen (ENG: Finn). The brothers have designed the famous Temppeliaukio kirkko (ENG: Temple Square church) build into a granite bedrock (also known as Church of the Rock). This Lutheran church is famous for its concerts, because it has good acoustics.
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| Temppleiaukion kirkko, Helsinki |
And Ähtäri has its landmark as well designed by brothers Suomalainen: a privately owned
Hotel Mesikämmen (ENG: Bear, RUS: Mишка). It's located across the road from
Ähtäri Zoo right by the lake and, surprise-surprise, also built into a bedrock like Temppeliaukio church in Helsinki. Looking from the zoo side, the hotel looks pretty small with just one floor, however, when you go inside, you realize the hotel goes 3 floors down into the granite bedrock and you can exit to the lake shore from the ground floor. Amazing! The hotel built into a solid rock has inspired quite a few couples to get married in the hallway on the ground floor seen in the photos :) Hard bedrock = strong marriage? Why not :)
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| View from 1st floor to ground floor |
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| View from ground floor up |
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| where are all the 3 floors here??? |
If the inside of the hotel is all rocks and cement, then the outside is all wood, therefore, fits the surrounding nature just perfectly. The hotel from the lake shore looks small as well, so you can't really tell that it has three floors. However, every hotel room has a view over the lake. The hotel is so well hidden into the bedrock that you can basically see only the ground floor from the outside. The big terrace is somewhere up there overlooking the lake Hankavesi :) If you hear music and singing on the terrace on summer evenings -- that means they have a terrace concert going on there :)
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| Hotel from the lakeside, no sign of the 3 floors :) |
What more, Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen have also designed the former Mini-Suomi wooden building in Ähtäri. The building is currently
FamilyGolf club house. The building is about 1200 m2 big. The wooden building fits perfectly in the surroundings as it's build of timber and also local rocks have been used to build natural walls:
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| local rock wall |
The golf club has a terrace, no concerts like at Mesikämmen hotel, but you can enjoy others playing golf while drinking a cup of coffee or juice, having a piece of freshly baked cake or eating soup for lunch.
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from the golf course side
golf club courtyard |
Talking of entertainment, FamilyGolf will have a zoo organised
Kummikonsertti (ENG: Godparents concert) event at FamilyGolf at the end of September where all the animal mascots involved at the music concert will be playing golf. Would you like to see who plays better golf Ähtäri Zoo Santeri-bear or Ranua Zoo Jonne-polarbear? Come and see the match then :)
So Ähtäri can be proud of having brothers Suomalainen designed buildings next to much older historical buildings that can be found scattered in Ähtäri. I have already written about
Tuomarniemi area on the other side of the Hankavesi lake from the zoo and the hotel and its old historical buildings dating back to the beginning of the 20th century when a forestry school was founded there. Tuomarniemi forestry school has operated there since 1903, educating forestry professionals of several levels.
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| school building from 1905 (look at the school bell on top of the roof) |
Before the forestry school, there was a judge’s resident located on this small peninsula since 1700’s until 1902. Hence, the area's name Tuomarniemi (ENG literally: Judge's Peninsular). The only building that has survived since then is an old tar barn built in 1890-s. The buildings could have signs saying what the building was used for, though:
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| barn for storing tar barrels |
Ähtärin history is well preserved in the former
Vääräkoski cardboard factory founded in 1897 by Gustaf A. Lönnqvist. It was built by the Hyvölän river which produced the necessary power for the factory. The factory was producing cardboard until 1998 when it went bankrupt. Nowadays
Vääräkosken Kartonkitehdas is open to the public as a place where various cultural events take place.
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| Korjauspaja (repair shop) |
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| Café (formerly factory office) |
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| water kept behind the dam |
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| what were they doing with this machine??? |
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| café terrace |
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| stylish hand painted wallpaper |
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| hmmm...I'm not sure I know how to use this phone |
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| a secret room, can't tell you where it is there :) |
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| café cash register :) |
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| this is what you do to a kettle when it's too hot to put down on a wooden windowsill :) |
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| baptism dress in a café? |
There are more hidden treasures than the ones mentioned in Ähtäri. Say for example a mansion in Inha area called
Pytinki. It is located on the grounds of an old metal factory which still is working and making for example aluminium
Buster fast boats. The mansion looks magnificent in its new Renaissance style though built as late as 1899. They say it's haunted and many people have seen strange things going on in the mansion. I wouldn't dare to go and check it out myself :) Especially not at night and on a bike, though it's quite close to Tuomarniemi, right by the lake Hankavesi :)
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| Photo: Museovirasto |
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