Visited Jean Sibelius' Birth Home in Hämeenlinna

We decided to go on a little day trip to Hämeenlinna about 75 km from where we live. None of us had ever visited Jean Sibelius' birth home in the town center before. We visited his home, Ainola, in Järvenpää last July. Sibelius (1865-1957) was probably the best known Finnish artist of all times. He was a violinist and a composer of the late Romantic and early modern period.

Sibelius never lived for longer than two years in his birth home. Between 1866 and 1868, there was a famine in Finland because of very poor harvests. The summers were exceptionally cold during that period. The famine killed eight percent of the population. As a result of the famine, infectious diseases were rampant. Jean Sibelius' father, Christian Gustaf Sibelius was doctor employed by the town. He treated patients infected with typhus among other diseases and contracted typhus himself which he died of in 1968. After his death, it turned out that he had guaranteed his friends' loans up to a substantial total sum, which forced his wife to sell the family home and move to live with his mother.

As a child, Jean Sibelius demonstrated talent in academic school subjects but he was quite absent-minded as he was focused on music. He described himself as having a vivid imagination. Jean Sibelius was a nature lover since childhood who would wander in nature imagining all sorts of mythical creatures. His teachers did not like him very much and many of his family members and relatives were concerned about him. After his graduation from upper secondary school, he enrolled at Helsinki university majoring in the sciences first but later switched his major to law. His family wanted him to become a senator. In their view, musician was not an honorable profession. Sibelius did have an uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius, who encouraged his violin playing and even donated a violin to him. Sibelius would spend a lot of time with him in Turku when he was growing up. Sibelius' earliest known composition was from when he was ten years old.

The birth home of Sibelius was first made into a museum by the Sibelius Society in the 1960's. In the 1980's, the town of Hämeenlinna bought it. The museum is frequented by groups of foreign tourists on a daily basis despite its small size.

This is the house from the back yard. It's completely surrounded by modern buildings and the surroundings are not particularly attractive.

This is the so-called gentlemen's room.

The main living room.

The family room.

The bedroom. Typically for the time, the bed was made up of two parts one of which would be pushed into the other during the day to save space. It wasn't really necessary in this home but even upper middle class people had such beds those days.

I forgot to ask the guide if there actually were this many musical instruments in the house when the family lived in it or if they have been brought from elsewhere.

The house from the roof of the adjacent shopping center where there was a parking area.

A post like this wouldn't be complete without a piece of Sibelius' music.

Valse Triste, his international breakthrough

Symphony No. 3 Op. 52