In the Shade of a Pine Forest – Hyvinkää Sanatorium 1896–1939

Its guest book was full of famous names, such as the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, the author Mika Waltari, the artist Hugo Simberg, the poet Saima Harmaja and Aino Sibelius, the wife of the famous composer Jean Sibelius.

As Hyvinkää Sanatorium soon gained popularity, it expanded in 1906, when the new main building, a handsome stone castle designed by the architect Lars Sonck (1870–1956), was completed.

Visitors to the sanatorium could benefit from Hyvinkää’s dry ‘mountain air’ until 1939, when it was converted into a military hospital. The sanatorium was badly damaged in the bombings during the Winter War (30 November 1939–13 March 1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union, and after the war the building was used for healthcare services.

In addition to the remaining sanatorium buildings, Hyvinkää Sanatorium has left its mark on the names of the streets in the area and the area itself, which serve as a reminder of the international influences that reached this small Finnish industrial town a century ago.