Cultural heritage
Varkaus has a rich architectural heritage. Varkaus's multi-layered industrial building stock tells the story of both the history of industry and the phases of the surrounding community. A significant preserved entity is the Old Varkaus area next to the factory, where the residential buildings for the factory workers and the old Factory School form a coherent entirety.
You can explore the cultural environments of the towns of Central Savo on the saranat.fi website, which offers online exhibitions, tasks, timelines and much more cultural environment information. In the online environment, you will find the municipalities of Central Savo: Varkaus, Pieksämäki, Leppävirta, Joroinen and Heinävesi.
A number of well-known architects have also created the building stock of Varkaus
Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto played an important role in the construction of the Varkaus factories of A. Ahlström Osakeyhtiö in the 1930s and 1940s. The number of Varkaus plans that Ahlström commissioned from Alvar Aalto's office is several dozen. Many of the plans remained on paper or were partially implemented – the main reason perhaps was that the projects were neglected due to the wars and the busy reconstruction period that followed, as well as the general shortage of materials. The majority of the buildings that Ahlström commissioned from Aalto in Varkaus were related to the settlement of the factory workers and the development of the city's structure through town plans and experimental house experiments. The sawmill building at the Varkaus factory reflects Aalto's own style on a monumental scale. As a single surviving building, the most significant of Aalto's projects in Varkaus is the Factory Club weekend house Kinkamo, completed in 1939. However, the greatest significance of Alvar Aalto's work in Varkaus lies in the production of small houses and the operation of the house factory.
You can explore Alvar Aalto's work using a paper map or a mobile route. Paper maps can be purchased from museumcentre Konsti.
Ivar ja Valter Thomé
Walter Ahlström, the CEO of A. Ahlström Ltd., had a vision of a new Finnish city that would be built around the industrial plants of Varkaus. The company bought the Varkaus ironworks in 1909 and began to intensively renovate it. The transformation from a small ironworks to a multidisciplinary industrial complex and an independent city began. Harnessing hydroelectric power began Varkaus' great construction years in the early 1910s. The architect brothers Ivar and Valter Thomé designed the first industrial plants, as well as the first town plan of Varkaus. Buildings designed by the Thomé brothers remain, including the museums of Varkaus and Väinölä, a wood mill on top of the power canal, a community kitchen and villas in Kosulanniemi.
You can explore the Thomé brothers' production using a mobile route.
Karl Lindahl
After the Thomén brothers, the architect Karl Lindahl continued as the Ahlström company's trusted designer. Karl Lindahl designed, for example, the Factory School, which A. Ahlström had built for the children of his workers before Varkaus gained municipal independence. Other surviving buildings designed by Lindahl include the Kosulanniemi sauna and the vicarage. You can explore Karl Lindahl's work using a a mobile route.
Kalevi Väyrynen
The nationally significant built cultural environment, Varkaus Kauppakatu, is a representative example of the impact of the active town hall architect, Kalevi Väyrynen, on the cityscape. Väyrynen designed the commercial and residential buildings at Kauppakatu 13, 15, 16, 21 and 29. Varkaus Kauppakatu is a street milieu in the city center, which is uniform in scale and urban and streetscape, and is mainly lined with low, maximum 3-storey stone commercial and residential buildings from the 1940s and 1950s. Architect Kalevi Väyrynen worked as a town hall architect in Varkaus for 10 years from 1948 to 1958. During this time, he designed and built numerous public and other buildings in the town hall, including: the Orthodox Church, the Town Hall, the water tower, the Kisapuisto sports field grandstand, the Lehtoniemi and Könönpelto schools, the economics school, the three houses on Längmaninkatu (now Evantori), Ahlströminkatu 10 and 12, Antinpuisto 8 and Wahlinkatu 2, the Luttila blessing chapel, the Huvipirtti workers' hall and the Kuoppakangas town plan. Väyrynen's influence on the general image of the city was significant. You can explore Väyrynen's work using a a mobile route.