Architecture in Aland

Mariehamn

At the turn of the century hundreds of grand wooden houses were built in Mariehamn. During this time period Hilda Hongell made a name for herself in the town through her imaginative architecture.

Hilda Hongell

Hilda Hongell (1867-1952) has designed 98 buildings in Mariehamn, mostly street houses and outhouses. Around 44 of them are still standing today and some of them are more or less rebuilt.

Hilda Hongell started her career as an extra student at Helsingfors Industrial School in 1891. In those days only men could attend the industrial schools in the country, but thanks to her excellent results she got accepted as a regular student the following year. In 1894 she became the first female architect in Finland.

Swiss style

At the turn of the century the ornamented Swiss style was clearly predominant, which also attracted Hilda Hongell. Today the law protects many of those older wooden houses as being culture-historically valuable buildings.
In all you find around 120 protected buildings in Mariehamn and several of them are houses by Hongell.

The two houses depicted on the stamps are both protected by law and good representatives of Hilda's architectural style. Both houses are in good condition and can be admired in the street 'Södragatan', south of the city centre. They were designed in 1897 and probably built the following year.