Old mental hospital. Helsinki Lapinlahti.
Lapinlahti Hospital, completed in 1841, is Finland's first mental hospital and one of the oldest psychiatric institutions in Europe. Lapinlahti Hospital originated on the orders of Emperor Nicholas I, and served as the “flagship of Finnish psychiatry” until 2008. The building was designed by Carl Ludvig Engel. Probably the most well-known patient in the hospital is our national writer Aleksis Kivi, whose illness was recorded as “anemia, drunkenness and offended writers”. There have also been notables in the hospital staff. For example, Christian Sibelius, the brother of Jean Sibelius, worked as the hospital's chief physician from 1904-1921.
Originally, the hospital area was over 35 acres - including farmland and pig farms, among others. Since then, the area has shrunk to a third of the way from the new neighborhoods and Länsiväylä. The original Farmlands have disappeared, but the park still has an exceptionally rich variety of plants, and endangered species, such as the ax flounder, (Depressaria chaerophylli) live in its hem. In addition, the park is bordered by a natural shoreline, and there is also an active parkland. The buildings (the main building of the hospital, the Venice House, as well as the wooden houses and the service building in the area) were protected by the Building Protection Act in 1994.
