The Ainola Estate

The Ainola Estate

According to a survey carried out in 1937, the total area of the present estate of Ainola amounts to 4.216 hectares, whereas it was only 0.74 hectares in 1904.
The cultivated area at Ainola was at its largest in the 1930s and 1940s, when it was over 0.5 hectares. The area of arable land was just under one hectare. At that time woodland covered about two and a half hectares. Today all the grounds consist of woodland with the exception of the garden.


The diagram shows the borders of the parcels of Ainola in order of acquisition.

The land area of Ainola expanded as follows:

I Original plot 0.74 hectares (1903)

Sibelius bought the original plot on November 18, 1903, from Alfhild and Anton Walter Westermarck (see also the background of the construction of Ainola). According to the documents, the subdivided 0.74-hectare plot comprised 0.11 hectares of cultivated land, 0.58 hectares of actual forest land, and 0.05 hectares of wasteland.

The plot bordered the edges of Kielomäki. The current gate is located 60 meters further along the driveway than the original boundary of the plot. The small size of the plot is well illustrated by the fact that the eastern boundary at that time brushed the back wall of the shed, and the sauna built in 1905 just barely fit on the property. The only land suitable for cultivation was a narrow strip along the western edge of the plot.

II Purchased plot 0.475 hectares (1912)

Tekla Borg died unmarried at the beginning of 1912, and Sibelius used the funds he inherited from his aunt in the fall to expand his plot. This was necessary, as the stable built in the spring of that year stood outside the boundaries of the Ainola plot. On October 14, Sibelius bought just under half a hectare of additional land from the Westermarcks for 2,500 marks (about 7,500 euros). The area comprised 0.19 hectares of arable land, 0.23 hectares of forest land, and 0.055 hectares of wasteland. The driveway to the house was moved to its current location. The plot expanded southwestward onto good arable land, and the future garden at the southern tip almost reached its current extent. In the coming years, 275 hedge spruce seedlings were planted along the plot’s border. Ainola’s new 127.5-meter-long southwestern side is still part of the area’s boundary today.

In the summer of 1913, Sibelius had a more than ten-meter-long stone wall built along the old southern boundary of the Ainola plot from 1904 – an incredible investment given the debt situation at that time. “That is precisely why we are building them now, because we have so little money. Let the walls be a monumental memorial to that!” said Sibelius.

III Gifted plot 0.97 hectares (1925)

In 1925, Armi Klemetti collected money from Finnish mixed choirs to acquire additional land for Sibelius as a 60th birthday present. With the funds received, just under a hectare of land from the Westermarcks was purchased and subdivided on October 14, well before the celebration day.

The Ainola area expanded by almost 50 meters to the northwest. At the same time, 60 meters of the road leading to the house was transferred to the property. The eastern forest area of the plot increased, and a 2-meter-wide strip of new space for a vegetable garden was created in the southeastern corner. Ainola’s current 225.5-meter-long southwestern border was established.

IV Purchased plot 0.036 hectares (1925)

In connection with the subdivision of the mixed choirs’ gifted land, Sibelius redeemed a small wedge-shaped strip from the Westermarcks, giving Ainola’s gate its current location. The western part of the Ainola area reached its final extent, allowing the spruce hedge to be completed. 550 spruce seedlings were purchased from Syrjänen’s garden in Vanaja, and a couple of years later, 120 more seedlings were acquired from the Evo nurseries. Over two kilometers of barbed wire were hastily acquired from the Perhelä cooperative to secure the eastern boundary of the plot.

V Purchased plot 1.965 hectares (1936)

During 1935, Sibelius’s peace was disturbed when logging began on E. N. Setälä’s land near Ainola. To stop the work, he acquired nearly two hectares of forest land bordering his plot from the bankruptcy administration of E. N. Setälä’s estate in 1936, which was subdivided on April 14. In the southeastern corner of the area was Sibelius’s “Temple,” a forest edge area where the composer often walked along a path to admire nature and contemplate his composition.