Carl Ludvig Engel
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Carl Ludvig Engel or Johann Carl Ludwig Engel (3 July 1778 – 14 May 1840) was a German architect whose most noted work can be found in
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
, which he helped rebuild. His works include most of the buildings around the capital's monumental centre, the Senate Square and the buildings surrounding it. The buildings are
Helsinki Cathedral Helsinki Cathedral (, ; , ) is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka in the centre of Helsinki, Finland, at the Senate Square. The church was originally built from 1 ...
, The Senate (now the Palace of the Council of State), the Helsinki City Hall, and the library and the main building of
Helsinki University The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Tsar Al ...
.


Biography

Carl Ludvig Engel was born in 1778 in Charlottenburg, Berlin, into a family of bricklayers. It was probably as a bricklayer apprentice that he first came in contact with his future profession as an architect. He trained at the Berlin Institute of Architecture after which he served in the
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n building administration. The stagnation caused by Napoleon's victory over Prussia in 1806 forced him and other architects to find work abroad. In 1808, he applied for the position as town architect of
Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
. He got the job and in this way came into the vicinity of St. Petersburg and its neoclassical
Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 duri ...
. Finland was also close by and was soon to experience a new governmental phase as a Grand Duchy under Russian rule. Engel started working in Tallinn in 1809, but just after a few years he was forced to move on again because of a lack of assignments. From this period in Estonia, a palace on Kohtu street 8 in Tallinn survives (today housing the Estonian
Chancellor of Justice The Chancellor of Justice is a government official found in some northern European countries, broadly responsible for supervising the lawfulness of government actions. History In 1713, the Swedish King Charles XII, preoccupied with fighting t ...
) and, possibly, Kernu manor. From 1814 to 1815, he worked for a businessman in Turku, Finland, where he came in contact with Johan Albrecht Ehrenström, who led the project of rebuilding Helsinki. The city had just been promoted to be the new capital of the new
Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...
. Ehrenström was searching for a talented architect to work by his side and this meeting proved to be decisive for Carl Ludvig Engel's future career. At this stage Engel did not however stay in Finland. In March 1815 he travelled to St. Petersburg where he got private employment. In 1816 Engel was planning on returning to his city of birth, but at the same time Ehrenström got approval for his plan to get Engel to Helsinki. Engel's plans for Helsinki had been shown to Czar Alexander I and in February Engel was appointed architect of the reconstruction committee for Helsinki. Engel probably thought that this would once again be a temporary job, but instead Helsinki came to be his life's work. In 1819–1820, when Engel's first creations were nearing completion, his status as a kind of head architect of the Grand Duchy was established when he received more and more building assignments, both private and public, in other parts of Finland. The final confirmation came when he in 1824 was appointed head of the statewide Intendant's Office, responsible for all key state buildings throughout the country, a position he was offered - but first declined because he still had hopes of returning to Prussia - following the resignation of its first head, the Italian-born architect Carlo Bassi, and which he retained until his death. Among his other key works from this period is Helsinki Old Church in
Kamppi Kamppi () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the centre of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name originally referred to a small area known as the "Kamppi field" (see below), but according to the current official d ...
, completed in 1826. He designed the first theater of Helsinki, '' Engels Teater'', in 1827, though this was a rather modest building. He was also responsible for the new city plan for
Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
after most of it was wiped out by the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. Engel died on 14 May 1840 in Helsinki.


Gallery

File:Helsingin yliopiston päärakennus.jpg, The main building of the
University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...
File:Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki.jpg, The Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki File:Helsingin_kaupungintalo_satamasta.jpg, Helsinki City Hall (1833), originally a hotel File:National_Library_of_Finland.jpg,
National Library of Finland The National Library of Finland (, ) is the foremost research library in Finland. Administratively the library is part of the University of Helsinki. From 1919 to 1 August 2006, it was known as the Helsinki University Library (). The Nationa ...
File:Johanneksenkirkko (Hamina) 1.jpg, St. John's Church in
Hamina Hamina (; , , Sweden ) is a List of cities in Finland, town and a Municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately east of the country's capital Helsinki, in the Kymenlaakso Regions of Finland, region, and formerly ...
File:Kulosaaren kartano.jpg, Kulosaari Manor (c. 1810) File:Kuopion Lyseon lukio.jpg, Kuopio Lyceum High School in
Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...
(1826) File:Kohtu8 oiguskantsler.jpg, Palace on Kohtu street 8,
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
File:Eckeroe-Storby Postmuseum.jpg, Eckerö Mail and Customs House (1828) File:Pyhän_Kolminaisuuden_Kirkko_-_DSC03943.JPG, Holy Trinity Church, Helsinki (1826) File:Lapuan_tuomiokirkko.jpg, Lapua Cathedral (1827) File:Sahalahden kirkko.JPG, Sahalahti church (1829) File:Lieksa bell tower.jpg,
Lieksa Lieksa () is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the North Karelia regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...
bell tower (1836) File:Alajärvi Church 2015.JPG, Alajärvi church (c. 1836) File:Nokian kirkko 2014 2.JPG, Nokia Church (1837) File:Kaivohuone A -Marit Henriksson.jpg, Kaivohuone (1838) File:Pori town hall, 2006.jpg, Pori Old Town Hall (1841)


See also

* Architecture of Finland


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Carl Ludvig 1778 births 1840 deaths Architects from Berlin People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg 19th-century German architects German neoclassical architects German emigrants to Finland 19th-century Finnish architects Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery