The “Turku disease”: tearing down the old town

Walk through the centre of Turku and you will see grand stone buildings from the 1800s standing next to plain concrete blocks from the 1960s and 70s. Each of those blocks replaced something older. This is the story of how it happened, and how people finally said no.

What was the “Turku disease”?

• Two meanings. The “Turku disease” (Turun tauti) means the demolition of old, culturally valuable buildings in the 1960s and 1970s to make room for new ones. It also means the corruption linked to it: a few big business groups had illegal influence on city policy Well documented.
• Named afterwards. The name became common only later. A newspaper put “TURKU DISEASE” on its front page in January 1981, and law professor Hannu Tapani Klami’s book Turun tauti in 1982 made the term stick Well documented.
• An old word. Klami noted that a Swedish version, “Åbosmittan”, had appeared in the local press as early as 1917 Well documented.
• Not only Turku. Similar things happened in Tampere and Oulu. One commentator called it “a disease of the whole of Finland” Well documented.

The demolition wave

• When. The demolitions peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s and went on into the 1970s. Most of the wooden one- and two-storey houses in the centre disappeared in the 1950s and 1960s Well documented.
• The first losses. Hotel Phoenix on the Market Square was torn down in 1959 for an apartment and commercial building. Phoenix and the Lindblom House are named as the first valuable buildings lost in the centre Well documented.
• Why? The city was growing fast (stop 41), people needed flats, and new buildings meant more floor space and more money for builders and landowners Likely.
• How many? We did not find a count of the old buildings demolished in central Turku Well documented.

The fight for Hamburger Börs

• An Art Nouveau hotel. Hotel Hamburger Börs next to the Market Square got an Art Nouveau extension in 1909, designed by Frithiof Strandell. It had 30 rooms and a cinema, the Metropol, in the yard Well documented.
• 1976. When plans to demolish it were published in 1976, the case drew national attention. The city council approved, the museum authorities objected, and complaints went all the way to the government. They were dismissed in December 1976, and the building was torn down Well documented.
• People on the street. It was the first time the people of Turku demonstrated against the demolition of a building. Hamburger Börs is called the last major building of the demolition wave Well documented.
• Again and again. The new hotel of 1979 was itself demolished in 2019 and replaced by another. The oldest part of Hamburger Börs, from the 1830s, still stands Well documented.

The tide turns

• Elections. In the municipal elections of autumn 1976 the left lost its majority on the city council, and support for this kind of building weakened. The arguments went on: in the early 1980s a fight over a plot on Hämeenkatu woke up the environmental movement in Turku Well documented.
• The Market Hall. The Market Hall from 1896, designed by Gustaf Nyström, is the second oldest in Finland. In the 1960s someone proposed tearing it down, but a wide protest stopped the plan. It was renovated in the 1970s and is now protected at the highest level Likely.
• When did it end? People disagree. A deputy mayor said the “disease” ended in 1993, a government minister said 2001 Debated.