Chubby columns, from Helsinki doorways

Entrance to the Uspenskin Cathedral. 

Yogi Berra said it: "You can observe a lot just by watching."  In the process of looking for numerals and letters on the street, I've started noticing other architectural treats, such as Helsinki's imposing pillars. Many Finnish buildings feature these stubby, powerful, and decorative columns in doorways and on facades. They really look like they are up to the task of bearing heavy weight.  

It's really fun to see those chubby granite pillars from the front get copied in brick at the side door, and again in the back.  

Above, brick rendition of granite pillars, Uspenskin cathedral.  

In a nearby neighborhood, this doorway facade bundles several pillars together.  If you look up close you see lions in those carved doors.  

A neoclassical pillar, right, has an Art Deco capital.  

And from Turku, at right, this massive column anchors the corner of a building.  The decoration along its top is unlike any classical order.  

   

Now I have a new mission--to go back and take a second look at all the neighborhoods where I was concentrating on numerals and letters, and didn't pay proper attention to the columns.  

Two endearing Finnish calligraphy signs

Some 140 years ago, Helsinki artists embraced Art Nouveau, known to them as Jugendstil. Many of these letters can still be seen on buildings.  

I could not resist these two little charmers.  They are about half a meter in length.  

More beautiful Finnish letters!

House identification placque.

This week I'm back in Helsinki for a revisit.  Last year I thought I found every last gorgeous letter in town, but it took just a few short walks around to reveal a new batch for me.  

Here are a few gems:

"Suomi" is Finland's own traditional name for itself.  Above, and at right, it appears in hefty letters that emphasize the strength of the doorway below it.   

BÖLS is the name of the stock exchange, it is
appropriately carved of solid granite, in a style
that looks like pure muscle in letter form.

A few more Art Nouveau letters from Finland

Slightly curved letters.  

I've posted a lot of numerals since I got back from Finland.  Now here are a few whole words.  They show some of the creative range of Jugenstil.  

Enjoy!  

Bell-bottomed letters.  

An S with a chef's toque.  

A curved and curliqued N, with a double-underlined O.  Sweet.  

Creative use of brickwork.

Look at the top of the arch.  

I'm not finished with the architectural numbers of Helsinki

It turns out I have more photos, using a borrowed camera, taken on one of those days I walked around Helsinki's Jugendstil neighborhood.  So here are a few more irresistible numerals in the Art Nouveau style that was the latest thing a century ago.

It's worth a trip to see them.  

Helsinki ABC's and 123's

A recent trip to Finland opened my eyes to a treasure house of beautiful letters on buildings there.  The capital city is full of visual treats.

 A unique Helsinki residence facade.

Like many cities, Helsinki went through a period of prosperity--theirs occurred around 1905-1915--during which whole new neighborhoods went up.  To showcase their modernity, young architects specified the new, sleek Jugendstil, which was then known more commonly in France, England, and the US as Art Nouveau.  They interpreted it in a fresh, distinctly Finnish way, with coils, local materials, and historic colors.  

  

But if you look closer at those entryways and signs, and if you are a letter-noticer like me, you begin to see wonderful calligraphy as well as ornament.  I took a few snapshots of letters and numerals in the chilly rain, and hope to get more on a return visit next year.    

Finns use a lot of coils.  

I love that numeral 1.  

Swans, a characteristic motif of Jugendstil

Names of businesses, private homes, and apartment houses offer lots of Jugendstil letters.  Complete with their awkward spacing.  Note the first 5 letters above.   

We don't see as many examples of this charming letter style in American cities, because our downtown building boom had already come and gone a little earlier, when Gothic Revival dominated late 19th century architecture.  Finland also did not share America's 1950's booming prosperity following WWII, which swept away many smaller, older American city neighborhoods that had housed the now out-of-style Art Nouveau. The Finns were actually obligated first to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union.  It sounds surreal. Periods of economic stagnation, however, tend to be periods when people make do with older buildings; that's how all those Gothic Revival buildings survived in Boston, and how Jugendstil buildings survived in Finland.   

Today dozens of doorways, lintels, and plaques delight the strolling tourist in Helsinki.  Only one kind of passerby is immune to the charms of Jugendstil.  Check next week's post to find out who, and why.