Sibelius Monument

Eila Hiltunen's monument to Jean Sibelius was unveiled in 1967 in a park on the Toolo shoreline, and it consists of 569 hollow stainless steel pipes welded into a single wave-like mass some eight and a half metres high, mounted on rock, which can be walked under and through. The abstraction caused an argument at the time, and a separate sculpted head of the composer was added beside it as a concession to the critics; both are now part of the site. The textured stainless steel pipes catch wind and light. It is on every coach route through the city, so it is rarely quiet during the day.

History

The park on the shore of Humallahti was renamed Sibelius Park in November 1945, ahead of the composer's eightieth birthday, but plans for a statue lay dormant until his death on 20 September 1957. In late 1959 the newly founded Sibelius Society of Finland opened a competition for sculptors; in the first round in 1961 Eila Hiltunen, a pioneer of welded sculpture, placed only sixth with an abstract cluster of pipes called Credo, which the press nicknamed "organ pipes", but her revised design, Passio Musicae, won the contested second round in 1962. After five more years of work, during which the Society required her to add a high-relief portrait of Sibelius as a concession to critics of abstraction, the monument was unveiled on 7 September 1967 and given to the City of Helsinki: 569 acid-resistant stainless steel pipes, textured and welded into an undulating cluster 8.5 metres high and weighing 24 tonnes (Wikipedia, Sibelius Monument).

Highlights

• 569 welded steel pipes - the wave-like mass on the rock.
• The separate sculpted head - the addition made after the original argument.
• Walking under the structure - the space beneath the pipes.
• The shoreline park - the sea and rocks around the monument.

When to go

Year round; early morning and evening avoid the coach traffic. One hour including the walk. Winter light on the steel is good but the park is icy.

Things to know

Coaches arrive continuously through the day and the site is small. There is nothing else at the location. Interpretation is a single plaque. In winter the approach paths are icy and poorly cleared.

Nearby

Toolo bay is east; the city centre lies south-east.

Key facts