Sibelius Museum

[5] The archives of The Sibelius Museum dates back to the collections of professor Otto Andersson of the Musicological Department at Åbo Akademi University.

[8] At the site of The Sibelius Museum, the botanical garden of the Royal Academy of Turku (Swedish: Kungliga Akademien I Åbo, Finnish: Kuninkaallinen Turun Akatemia) was located.

After the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the only plant that survived was an Oak tree that stands between the bank of the river Aura and the current museum building.

[10][11] After the fire, printer Christian Ludvig Hjelt bought the site of the garden in 1831 and built a couple of wooden houses on the plot.

[9] Attempts to restore the garden to its original state were made during the 1930s, during which Justus Montell aimed at planting his collections next to the oak from Kalm's era.

[12] The foundations of the proper historical music museum were already made in 1926, when Otto Andersson was granted the professorship of the recently established Department of Musicology and Folklore at Åbo Akademi University.

Before the year 1949, The Sibelius Museum did not yet have a proper name, and it was simply known as "The historical music collections of Åbo Akademi University".

Some journalist miscalled the exhibition "The Sibelius Museum", which aroused controversy between professor Andersson and the rector of Åbo Akademi University G.O.

To avoid any further confusion about the exhibition, professor Andersson sent a letter to the composer, in which he asked a formal permission to use the name of Sibelius in official contexts.

The composed replied on 16 January 1949 with the following words:[17]It is with great pleasure I agree on that the historical music collections of the school of Åbo Akademi shall bear the name "Sibelius Museum".

It gives me pride and joy to accept this.After the name change, the museum received its first permanent premises in the house that currently works as the restaurant Hus Lindman.

[17] Towards the end of the 1950s, several discussions were made between the city of Turku and Åbo Akademi University to build a joint museum about Jean Sibelius and Wäinö Aaltonen.

The interior is particularly notable for the large hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped concrete shell structure, said to have been influenced by the then contemporaneous architecture of the Mexican architect Félix Candela.