Rovaniemi city hall is the main municipal administrative building of the city of

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Per� ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The building was designed by the renowned Finnish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Alvar Aalto, and although the design work started in the 1960s as part of the rebuilding of the Rovaniemi city centre, the city hall building was only completed in 1986 after Aalto's death. The city hall is part of a complex of Aalto-designed public and administrative buildings, commonly referred to as 'Aalto Centre', together with the Lappia Hall arts and conference venue and the Rovaniemi library. The complex has been designated and protected by the Finnish Heritage Agency as a nationally important built cultural environment (''Valtakunnallisesti merkittävä rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö''). The building consists of a central block with several connected wings. The key rooms such as the Mayor's office, the City Council assembly hall and committee meeting rooms are positioned centrally by the main entrance. The exterior materials are similar to those on the other Aalto Centre buildings, creating a coherent and unified cluster. Outside the main entrance to the building is a massive stone sculpture ''Vuorten Synty'' ('The Birth of Mountains') by the Finnish sculptor Kain Tapper, completed in 1988. The sculpture is long, and has a maximum height of . It symbolises the rebirth of Rovaniemi following the

Lapland War During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...

References

{{reflist Alvar Aalto buildings Modernist architecture in Finland Rovaniemi City and town halls in Finland Government buildings completed in 1986 Buildings and structures in Lapland (Finland)

See also

References