Helsinki Central Station

[12]: 59, 66 [13]: 10 The choice was perhaps also influenced by Knut Stjernvall serving as the technical director of the railway company at the time, whose stepfather Carl Johan Walleen [fi] owned Villa Hakasalmi on the western shore of the Töölönlahti bay.

Per the request of the citizens, the railway line was moved slightly to the east in 1859, in order to preserve the two large and beautiful hills in the park.

[15] The bay was confined at Hakasalmi, ditches were dug into the Kluuvi swamp, and a stone-walled assembly pool was built behind the dam, from where the water was pumped into Töölönlahti by wind power.

[16]: 9 According to the plans in the 1830s, the area to the north of Kaivokatu and to the west of Mikonkatu was to be divided into two blocks, which were named Hyeena ("hyaena") and Hilleri ("polecat"), separated by the street Hakasalmenkatu, now known as Keskuskatu.

Chief director Claes Wilhelm Gyldén and governor Samuel Henrik Antell supported the largest building and proposed that the station should be constructed as large enough and permanent right from the start.

[22]: 25 [12]: 100 The first railway station in Helsinki was a sort of romantic picturesque manor, whose small size and simple appearance was also an act of honouring the emperor and Saint Petersburg.

[26]: 163 [28]: 48  The contestants received a floor plan designed by architect Bruno Granholm about the station building as well as the office and administrative wing attached to it.

[22]: 49 The design contest was judged by architects Sebastian Gripenberg, Hugo Lindberg and Gustaf Nyström, as well as the main director of the railway administration, August Granfelt.

[22]: 52 The contest was won by Eliel Saarinen's entry Bevingadt hjul på en jordglob – Maapallolla seisova siipipyörä ("A winged wheel standing on a globe"),[26]: 281  with a pure national romanticist design, with sturdy walls, eight bears, one tall sharp-pointed tower and numerous smaller towers, as well as a beautifully drawn stone portal to the main platform.

[27]: 16 Architects Sigurd Frosterus and Gustaf Strengell thought Saarinen's entry was old-fashioned and demanded sense and rationality to the architecture of the railway station.

Later the floor plan of the station building was freed from the model specified by the railway administration and was made more clear for the purpose of use by large masses of people.

A total of 20 thousand cubic metres of floors for the building were cast from iron-reinforced concrete, which is thought to have been a new record in Finland at the time.

[30]: 12 The Finnish Civil War broke out after the Russian Revolution and Finland declared its full independence, with the Reds conquering the station in January 1918.

The badly deteriorated old station building, the scaffolding that had been around the clock tower for five years and the fence around the construction site were all dismantled in December 1918.

[31]: 33 The worst damage that the railway station suffered was at the end of the Continuation War in February 1944, when the Soviet Union engaged in the bombing of Helsinki.

[33] No one was killed in the fire, but five firemen suffered slight smoke poisoning, and one fireman broke his hip after he fell through the roof onto the attic.

There are gaps covered with 70 cm grids between the tracks to allow for rainwater to fall down onto the rubble below and to soak into the soil so that the wooden piles originally driven into the former Kluuvi swamp will not decompose.

[37] At the same time, the retirement foundation of the VR Group commissioned a hotel and an office building to the northern edge of the Eliel Square, reaching over the platforms of the commuter trains.

This pedestrian tunnel will decrease bicycle traffic at the Eliel Square and on the Kaivokatu street and will make access to the station platforms easier.

[8]: 147  The building was chosen as one of the ten most beautiful railway stations in the world in 2012 by the American website Flavorwire.com and the tourist guide publisher Lonely Planet, as well as by the BBC in 2014.

[47][48] In addition to the National Museum of Finland, the Helsinki Central Station was one of the largest construction projects by the Finnish state in the early 20th century.

The facade of the building became a combination of heavy granite surfaces and airy decorative elements and graceful window frames in a playful balance with them.

[26]: 164 The station is mostly clad in Finnish granite,[50] and its distinguishing features are its clock tower and the two pairs of statues holding the spherical lamps, lit at night-time, on either side of the main entrance.

Animated characters based on the statues have recently been featured in some major advertising campaigns by Finland's government-owned railway operator VR, to the extent of releasing rap singles allegedly sung by Kivimiehet ("The stone men").

[53] Nowadays the tower is no longer open for the public for security reasons, with the exception of invited guests, such as descendants of Eliel Saarinen.

[63] Helsinki Central houses a private 50-square-metre (540 sq ft) waiting lounge exclusively for the use of the President of Finland and their official guests.

[5] Emperor Nicholas II of Russia entered the Rautatientori Square on the last ever imperial visit to the Grand Duchy of Finland through the lounge.

[27]: 21 Counsellor of state Juho Kusti Paasikivi held discussions in the lounge with his staff on negotiation trips to Moscow before the Winter War in autumn 1939.

Platforms 1–3 are on the east side and serve local trains on the Tikkurila route, their tracks stop short of the main station roof.

[67] On the other hand, another solution has been investigated, based on individual changes to switches and geometry and renewal of the commuter trains, as well as improving access control.

There were four different options for the railway line and three possible locations for the station. In 1857 option number 4 (shown in blue) was chosen to be built, and the Helsinki Central Station was decided to be built in Kluuvi.
Helsinki's first railway station building.
The station viewed from the tracks. The tracks were covered with a wooden shelter.
The third class waiting hall at the old railway station in Helsinki in 1909. Photograph by Signe Brander .
Gustaf Sandberg: The Rautatientori square in the early 1900s.
The floor plan of the new Helsinki railway statio in the early 1900s.
Pile-driving work at the Helsinki railway station in 1906.
The administrative building was completed in July 1909.
World War I caused construction of the new railway station in Helsinki to be paused. The scaffolding around the clock tower remained in place for five years until it was finally dismantled.
The inauguration ceremony of the Helsinki railway station.
The Helsinki railway station on fire after the bombing of Helsinki in 1944.
A devastating fire broke out at the Helsinki railway station on 14 June 1950.
The heat caused by the fire melted the wires of the chandeliers, which fell down on the floor.
A photograph by Eric Sundström of arriving baggage at the Helsinki railway station in 1928, which was located at the central hall of the station for a long time. In 1979 arriving baggage moved to the western wing of the station, freeing the central hall for a public thoroughfare.
The opening ceremony of the first electric railway line at Helsinki railway station in 24.1.1969. The Prime Minister of Finland, Mauno Koivisto cutting the ceremony ribbon. The train Sm1 opened the first line that operated between Helsinki and Kirkkonummi
Main façade and main entrance of the station.
Station façade close up
Parodies of the "stone men" statues at the Linnanmäki amusement park.
The Helsinki Central Station as seen from the Sokos department store.
The clock tower of the Helsinki Central Station.
The clock tower was only actually fitted with clocks three years after its completion. Pictured is one of the four clock faces at the clock tower.
The granite sculptures on either side of the main entrance of the Helsinki Central Station are named Lyhdynkantajat ("The Lantern Bearers").
The presidential lounge
The main entrance to the presidential lounge, facing the Rautatientori Square.
President Kallio (centre, at the front) together with Marshal Mannerheim (left of Kallio) at the Central Station on December 19, 1940, pictured a few seconds before a fatal heart attack.
Human traffic jam at the station platform of the last M train leading to Vantaankoski , Vantaa
LC display at the main hall
Train platforms
The station platforms in the snow
A photograph of a train at the Linnunlaulu cliff cut in 1908, by I. K. Inha .
A schematic map of the tracks at the Helsinki Central Station. Green lines denote commuter traffic on the Rantarata line, yellow lines denote long-distance traffic on the Rantarata line, red lines denote long-distance traffic on the Finnish Main Line , blue lines denote commuter traffic on the Finnish Main Line, and black lines denote service traffic. Arrows denote the direction of traffic and spheres denote stabling tracks.