Lahti Town Hall

Eliel Saarinen's Lahti town hall is a discreet but important building near the central square. Its base of rough-cut granite, the plain plaster of the upper walls and the chunky tower with its steep slate roof are typical of Finnish National Romanticism in the early 1900s.

The interior has been remodelled over the decades but the council chamber retains much of the original detail. Visits are easy outside business hours; ask at reception during the day. The square in front is also home to the long Lahti Market Hall and a regular farmers' market.

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A story
Eliel Saarinen — better known later as the designer of the Helsinki railway station and Cranbrook Academy in Michigan — designed Lahti's town hall in 1911 when he was still working in Finland. The building bridges National Romanticism and early modernism, with a chunky granite base, plain rendered upper walls, and a high pitched roof; it is one of the smaller jewels of Finnish civic architecture.