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Otaniemi
Otaniemi (Finnish), or Otnäs (Swedish), is a district of Espoo, Finland. It is located near the border with Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
Otaniemi is located on the southern shore of the Laajalahti bay, next to the district of Tapiola near the border to Helsinki. It is part of the Greater Tapiola major district. Otaniemi and Tapiola are separated by the Ring I beltway. The Aalto University metro station, located in Otaniemi, was put into service in 2017.
Otaniemi is the home of Aalto University's campus, thus "Otaniemi" is often used as a synonym for Aalto. However, several research and business facilities are also located in Otaniemi. The most prominent institutions for science and engineering in Otaniemi are the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). Business is represented in the area by the business incubator Technopolis. In 2010, Otaniemi became home to Aalto University, formed from the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and the Helsinki School of Economics.
The oldest signs of human activity in the Otaniemi area can be found in front of the courtyard of what is now Jämeräntaival 1 (the so-called summer hotel): a pile of rocks dating from the Bronze Age (also called "the grave of the primordial teekkari"), about 3000 years old. Graves of this kind have apparently also been built as memorial for the disappeared, because no bones of the dead were found from this pile. The graves were apparently built on islets, which the Jämeräntaival hill also used to be. Ancient fishermen were active in the area because the main course of the Vantaa river used to flow into the Iso Huopalahti bay at the bottom of Laajalahti at the time.
The etymology of the name "Otaniemi" is not certain. It is thought to have come from the Finnish word "oka" meaning the point of a spear, because of the sharp shape of the peninsula, or from "ohto" meaning a bear, which is also supported by the names of nearby places such as Otsolahti and Karhusaari, or from the Sámi word "outa" meaning a forested lowland. The latter might well be the correct etymology, because in late medieval sources the name Otaniemi also appears as Outnäs, Owttenes or Outenesby (later Otnäs). Because of the diphthong "ou" which is rarely used in Swedish, it can be deduced that there have been southern Sámi people or Tavastians in the ara in ancient times. There are also other place names of Sámi ancestry in Espoo, the most notable of which is probably Nuuksio.
The village of Otaniemi, which according to tax documents from 1540 included three houses, originally belonged to Helsingin pitäjä, where the masters of the village often served as jurors in court sessions. During the Russo-Swedish War, on the icy cold winter of 1577 the Tatars attacked the coast of Espoo over the Gulf of Finland and burned the entire village of Otaniemi to the ground. In 1602 the lands were given to the experienced war hero, ensign Daniel Golovachev. The lord of the Turku Castle, Anders Nilsson (Hyttner) received control of the houses in Otaniemi in the 1630s and at that time they formed a unified farmstead for the first time in their history, a manor exempt from equipping cavalry.
The mayor of Helsinki Gabriel Tavast bought Otaniemi in 1653 and almost ten years later in 1662 it was transferred to the state as a manor of the crown. Otaniemi was accepted as a farmstead required to equip cavalry in 1695. The area had already become part of Espoo before this. After the Great Wrath, the lands of Otaniemi were bought by colonel Henrik Wright who had served in the army of King Charles XII of Sweden. This took place in 1734, and thus two new crofts were formed, Björnholm (Karhusaari) at the eastern shore of the Otsolahti bay and Lakör at the point of the Otaniemi peninsula. When the immense construction work of Sveaborg started, the farmstead of Otaniemi was transferred to the ownership of Karl von Numers in 1746.
The construction workers and garrison men of Sveaborg required large amounts of accommodation space, and new residential buildings were built also in the Otaniemi area. One of these so-called military crofts later developed into the Hagalund manor, which still remains at its place, near the Otaniemi water tower. In 1810 the farmstead was split in two between the grandsons of Karl von Numers. One of them received the lands of the Hagalund manor and the other received the farmstead proper with its main building. The Otaniemi manor was later sold in 1832 to banker Johan Norrman, who himself sold the entire property to beer merchant Pavel Sinebrychoff 25 years later. Sinebrychoff then expanded his property and also bought the Hagalund manor in 1859.
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Otaniemi
Otaniemi (Finnish), or Otnäs (Swedish), is a district of Espoo, Finland. It is located near the border with Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
Otaniemi is located on the southern shore of the Laajalahti bay, next to the district of Tapiola near the border to Helsinki. It is part of the Greater Tapiola major district. Otaniemi and Tapiola are separated by the Ring I beltway. The Aalto University metro station, located in Otaniemi, was put into service in 2017.
Otaniemi is the home of Aalto University's campus, thus "Otaniemi" is often used as a synonym for Aalto. However, several research and business facilities are also located in Otaniemi. The most prominent institutions for science and engineering in Otaniemi are the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). Business is represented in the area by the business incubator Technopolis. In 2010, Otaniemi became home to Aalto University, formed from the merger of the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Art and Design Helsinki, and the Helsinki School of Economics.
The oldest signs of human activity in the Otaniemi area can be found in front of the courtyard of what is now Jämeräntaival 1 (the so-called summer hotel): a pile of rocks dating from the Bronze Age (also called "the grave of the primordial teekkari"), about 3000 years old. Graves of this kind have apparently also been built as memorial for the disappeared, because no bones of the dead were found from this pile. The graves were apparently built on islets, which the Jämeräntaival hill also used to be. Ancient fishermen were active in the area because the main course of the Vantaa river used to flow into the Iso Huopalahti bay at the bottom of Laajalahti at the time.
The etymology of the name "Otaniemi" is not certain. It is thought to have come from the Finnish word "oka" meaning the point of a spear, because of the sharp shape of the peninsula, or from "ohto" meaning a bear, which is also supported by the names of nearby places such as Otsolahti and Karhusaari, or from the Sámi word "outa" meaning a forested lowland. The latter might well be the correct etymology, because in late medieval sources the name Otaniemi also appears as Outnäs, Owttenes or Outenesby (later Otnäs). Because of the diphthong "ou" which is rarely used in Swedish, it can be deduced that there have been southern Sámi people or Tavastians in the ara in ancient times. There are also other place names of Sámi ancestry in Espoo, the most notable of which is probably Nuuksio.
The village of Otaniemi, which according to tax documents from 1540 included three houses, originally belonged to Helsingin pitäjä, where the masters of the village often served as jurors in court sessions. During the Russo-Swedish War, on the icy cold winter of 1577 the Tatars attacked the coast of Espoo over the Gulf of Finland and burned the entire village of Otaniemi to the ground. In 1602 the lands were given to the experienced war hero, ensign Daniel Golovachev. The lord of the Turku Castle, Anders Nilsson (Hyttner) received control of the houses in Otaniemi in the 1630s and at that time they formed a unified farmstead for the first time in their history, a manor exempt from equipping cavalry.
The mayor of Helsinki Gabriel Tavast bought Otaniemi in 1653 and almost ten years later in 1662 it was transferred to the state as a manor of the crown. Otaniemi was accepted as a farmstead required to equip cavalry in 1695. The area had already become part of Espoo before this. After the Great Wrath, the lands of Otaniemi were bought by colonel Henrik Wright who had served in the army of King Charles XII of Sweden. This took place in 1734, and thus two new crofts were formed, Björnholm (Karhusaari) at the eastern shore of the Otsolahti bay and Lakör at the point of the Otaniemi peninsula. When the immense construction work of Sveaborg started, the farmstead of Otaniemi was transferred to the ownership of Karl von Numers in 1746.
The construction workers and garrison men of Sveaborg required large amounts of accommodation space, and new residential buildings were built also in the Otaniemi area. One of these so-called military crofts later developed into the Hagalund manor, which still remains at its place, near the Otaniemi water tower. In 1810 the farmstead was split in two between the grandsons of Karl von Numers. One of them received the lands of the Hagalund manor and the other received the farmstead proper with its main building. The Otaniemi manor was later sold in 1832 to banker Johan Norrman, who himself sold the entire property to beer merchant Pavel Sinebrychoff 25 years later. Sinebrychoff then expanded his property and also bought the Hagalund manor in 1859.