First Film Ever Seen in Finland - Helsinki, Finland
N 60° 10.093 E 024° 57.133
35V E 386372 N 6671907
This historical marker about the first film ever seen in Finland is located on the City Hall building, which is the former Seurahuone Hotel.
Waymark Code: WMPFRP
Location: Finland
Date Posted: 08/24/2015
Views: 19
The historical marker provides text in Finnish, Swedish, English, and French. The English text reads:
"The first film ever seen in Finland was a motion picture by the French Lumière Brothers, presented on June 28, 1896, in this building which was then the Hotel Seurahuone."
The following additional information is from the Virtual Helsinki website (
visit link) :
"City Hall was originally designed as a hotel. After Helsinki was made the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812, it needed new and better facilities for entertaining, especially since the Bock House, which had been the centre of social life up to then, became the official residence of the Governor-General. Tsar Nicholas I also took an interest in this project. A good location was available to the south of the Bock House, next to the harbour.
The Hotel Seurahuone was designed by the German architect Carl Ludwig Engel and was completed in 1833. The hotel was quite large for its time. It contained business premises on the ground floor and a large banqueting room on the second floor. The hotel also had gambling rooms, but only 27 rooms for guests.
The Hotel Seurahuone was the scene of many Finnish premieres. The first Finnish opera, King Charles' Hunt by Fredrik Pacius, was staged there in 1852. The Lumière brothers arranged Finland's first film showing at the Seurahuone in 1896, only half a year after the world premiere in Paris.
The Seurahuone operated as a hotel up to 1913, although the city acquired the building in 1901 in order to build a new city hall on the lot. Part of the building was placed in official use immediately. During the First World War a hospital for Russian naval personnel was located there."