SEMINARY PARK - AT THE ORIGINS OF THE FINNISH SCHOOL GARDEN

The garden of Finland's first teacher seminar, Seminary Park, which preceded the University of Jyväskylä, became Finland's first official school garden. With the students of the Jyväskylä Teacher Seminary, the knowledge and know-how of horticulture spread around the country.

Seminary Park was formed in the 1880s when Finland's first teacher seminary moved from rental properties in the centre of Jyväskylä to the ridge field on the southwest edge of the city (Seminaarinmäki). Between the brick buildings of the seminary, designed by Konstantin Kiseleff, an extensive landscape park and a school garden were designed.

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The seminary greenhouse in the garden of the Villa Rana building in 1947-49. The greenhouse was demolished in the 1960s after horticulture education ended. JYU Science Museum Collections K1555:38.

The plans for Seminary Park were drawn up by the then Helsinki City Gardener L.A. Jernström in 1880-82 and it became Finland's first official, state-funded school garden. Until the 1930s, the park was considered the most beautiful park in Jyväskylä. The buildings of the Jyväskylä Seminary and the extensive landscape garden served as models for the construction of seminaries and their gardens in Finland.

Along with the students of the country's first primary school teacher seminar founded by Uno Cygnaeus, the teachings of gardening spread throughout Finland, and Seminary Park is an important monument to the development of the Finnish school garden idea and primary school system.

In particular Kalle Kalervo, who worked as a gardener at the Jyväskylä Teachers' Seminary from 1909 to 1910, had a significant impact on the development of the Finnish elementary school garden and school garden idea. Kalervo moved from the Jyväskylä seminary to work as a horticultural advisor for the Board of Education and in this position he started the nationwide supervision of school gardens. As a result of this work, school garden activities quickly spread across the country.

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Kalle Kalervo inspecting a cultivation box in Villa Rana's garden in 1909-1910. JYU Science Museum collections K1573:132.

Notable elements in Seminary Park were the Moirislampi pond dug into the ridge wetland, an extensive orchard and a cultivation pallet garden and greenhouse established in the Villa Rana building. Between 1952 and 1971, the Alvar Aalto campus and the surrounding lush Aalto Park were built as an extension of Seminary Park. The park composition, created in collaboration between Onni Savonlahti and Aalto, forms a coherent overall work of art with the architecture of the area.

Today, the entire Seminaarinmäki area is one of the Finnish Heritage Agency's nationally significant built cultural environments (RKY). In 2022, Seminaarinmäki was awarded the European Heritage Label (EHL) by the European Commission as the first destination in Finland. Seminary Park also forms the core area of the Botanical Garden of the University of Jyväskylä.

The university's signature tree, the 'Oppio' Chinese apple tree, and crabapple trees in full bloom in Seminaarinmäki. JYU Science Museum Collections.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SEMINARY PARK? VISIT THE WEBSITE OF JYVÄSKYLÄ UNIVERSITY BOTANICAL GARDEN: Botanical Garden front page.