Hvitträsk

60°10′53″N 024°31′12″E

Hvitträsk

Hvitträsk is a mansion complex in Kirkkonummi, Finland, about 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of Helsinki. It was designed as a studio home by the members of the Finnish architecture firm Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen, later becoming the private residence of Eliel Saarinen. It operated as a museum until 2024, when it was closed due to budget cuts by Petteri Orpo's government affecting the Finnish Heritage Agency.^[1]

Description

Postage stamp from 1978

The development was started when the plot was purchased by the company in 1901. The construction was mostly completed by 1903.^[2][3][4][5] The house was named after Lake Vitträsk [fi], beside which it was built. [H]vitträsk literally means White Lake. Today Hvitträsk is a museum open to the public. The red-roofed manor structure facing the lake is the main museum building, and the brownish structure separated on the other side by a yard is the cafeteria. There is also a smaller sauna down by the lake.^[6]

In 1922 Lindgren's home in the north side partially burned down. Eliel Saarinen's son Eero Saarinen designed a new building in its place in 1929–33.^[6][2][7]

Gallery

Exterior

• 
  View of the lakeside
• 
  View of the museum building from the lakeside
• 
  Side of the museum, with the cafeteria visible on the right
• 
  The cafeteria
• 
  Museum seen from the cafeteria
• 
  Road from the opposite northeast side, with the cafeteria ahead
• 
  Cafeteria front, where the museum building would now be on the right
• 
  Courtyard structure
• 
  The gravesite of Eliel Saarinen, his wife Loja and Herman Geselius^[8]

Interior

• 
  Living Room
• 
  Dining Room
• 
  Stained glass Rival Suitors by Olga Gummerus-Ehrström [fi], 1905
• 
  Library
• 
  Atelier
• 
  Géza Maróti's relief The Angel of Resurrection in the atelier
• 
  Playroom

Featured in publications

• Moderne Bauformen 6, no. 4 (1907): 159–62;8, no. 8 (1909): 350, 353.
• Hemma och Ute 3, (August 1913): 210–14; 3 (September 1913): 234–5.
• American Architect and Architectural Review 124 (September 26, 1923): 19 pls.
• Arkkitehti nos. 11–12 (1943): 24.
• Architectural Review 139 (February 1966): 152–54.
• Space Design no. 133 (September 1975): 91–94
• Connaissance des Arts no. 238 (December 1971): 108–13, 192.
• New York Times 13 February 1966, VI, p. 64.

References

1. "Museoviraston säästöt sulkevat Mannerheimin syntymäkodin, Seurasaaren ja muita museoita – "Koko toiminta kurjistuu"". Helsingin Sanomat. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
2. "Hvitträsk Historiaa". Kansallismuseo. 23 January 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
3. "Hvitträsk". Museot. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
4. "Hvitträsk Museum". Visit Espoo. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
5. "Hvitträsk, Kirkkonummi". Museovirasto Restauroi. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
6. "Hvittärskin ateljeehuvila". Valtakunnalliset merkittävät rakennetut kulttuuriympäristöt RKY. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
7. Koskela, Anna (19 September 2017). "Hvitträsk Vaimojen vaihto ja kummituksia". Tämä Matka. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
8. Jaakkola, Saana (16 November 2015). "Kalliomaalausten metsästys päättyi hautaan – Vitträsk-järven maisemissa". Live now dream later. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.

External links

• Hvitträsk - official site
• Media related to Hvitträsk at Wikimedia Commons