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Founded: 1896-1900Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Finland
Historical period: Russian Grand Duchy (Finland)
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Pitkäniemi is a mental hospital area built by the government in the end of the 19th century. It was then one of the largest building projects in Finland and purposed to provide mental health services to entire Western Finland. Pitkäniemi buildings were designed by architects S. Gripenberg, M. Schjerfbeck and E.A. Kranck.
The common supposition in the 19th century was that dwelling in nature and working outdoors is the best way to cure mental illnesses. The beautiful park were also added soon after buildings to Pitkäniemi.
Pitkäniemi area is a well-preserved and solid sample of public architecture in the later 19th century. It’s still in hospital use, but the park and Pyhäjärvi beach is open to the public.
Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).