House of the Estates

The House of the Estates has classicist facades with columnar systems and temple pediments decorated with sculptures. The pediment features a bronze-cast sculptural group (Emil Wikström 1903) with Emperor Alexander I as the central figure, confirming Finland's laws and rights. Built as a meeting place for three non-noble estates, the House of the Estates is a national institutional building of social-historical, architectural and architectural-historical significance.

The building, designed by architect Gustaf Nyström and completed in 1891, has exceptionally well-preserved original interiors with fixed furnishings and concrete mosaic and parquet floors. The wall and ceiling surfaces are in almost every room adorned with rich and accomplished decorative paintings executed by the firm of Salomon Wuorio.

The House of the Estates underwent a comprehensive restoration in 1988–1993, during which all the building's decorative paintings were conserved and restored. The facade was returned to the originally planned lime-paint treatment imitating yellowish sandstone. The so-called Alexander frieze painted on a red ground in the facade frieze zone was also restored at the same time.