Charles Bassi

[1] In 1802 Bassi travelled to Finland (at the time a part of Sweden) to supervise the construction of a new building for the Royal Academy of Turku designed by Gjörwell.

[1] At first he was active as an independent architect, notably in Turku, and was in 1810 appointed as the head of a government agency (Swedish: intendenturkontoret) responsible for producing plans for new church buildings.

Notably, the city centre of Turku with its pronounced Neoclassical architecture contains several buildings by Bassi and was to some extent shaped by his work.

In Finland, Bassi continued to work in the restrained form of Neoclassicism which was popular in Sweden (sometimes called Gustavian after King Gustav III) and practised by his friend and co-worker Gjörwell.

It stands in contrast to the more elaborate Neoclassicism that was later to become popular in Finland through the influence from Saint Petersburg, practised e.g. by his successor Carl Ludvig Engel.