Hamburger Börs, Turku

Hamburger Börs was a 1909 Art Nouveau hotel building in Turku, Finland, next to the Market Square. It was designed by Frithiof Strandell as an expansion to an existing hotel on Kauppiaskatu (the street along the northeast side of the square), and had 30 rooms. A brick warehouse stood in what was to become the inner yard of Strandell's expansion; rather than tearing it down, he had the Metropol film theatre built inside it. (Under the names Lyyra V and Rialto, the theatre later functioned until the 1960s) Oy Centrum Ab sold the property to the Turku cooperative in 1942, and the cooperative began considering how to make better use of the lot. Plans for a renovation began in the 1970s. Both the Finnish Museum Board and the Turku museum board wanted to protect the building. Proposals that involved dismantling it were published in 1976, and this drew media attention all around the country. There were differing opinions about whether the building should be protected; the intendant of the Turku Museum of Art, Erik Bergh, said that the building did not fit into its surroundings at all and could be dismantled. The Turku city council accepted the plan to dismantle. The Finnish People's Democratic League, the museum boards, the provincial arts foundation of Turku and Pori, and Enemmistö ry (a group promoting public transport and pedestrians) opposed it. The Finnish government received co

Hotel data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).