HS Helsinki Here are the coats of arms of Helsinki’s districts: A man devouring heraldry did a huge job for fun and created festive symbols for the suburbs

Huh, what a chore!

26-year-old Arttu Rintanen During the autumn, he drew a total of 61 coats of arms for Helsinki’s districts. It took three months.

“There are a little less than 61 districts in Helsinki, but because the official districts, especially in the suburbs, are large in size and contain several subdivisions, I break down some of the districts into smaller ones,” says Rintanen.

Rintanen got acquainted with the history of Helsinki’s districts and devised coats of arms. The actual drawing of the coats of arms on the computer ended up fairly quickly.

Is I had to ask why Rintanen started the project.

“Different coats of arms and flags have always fascinated me. I like old, simple coats of arms the most. They exude the basic principle of heraldry: coats of arms have been a means of identifying one’s own troops from other troops on the battlefields, ”he says.

Rintanen became genuinely interested in coat of arms a few years ago when the University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology merged.

He was at the time on the board of his subject organization, the Political Science Subject Organization Evening School. The organization’s student overalls had an old university seal. The old seal with torch and bearing could no longer be used.

The subject organization did not want to print the university’s new logo on its overalls: it was unnecessarily modern in the eyes of many.

“That’s when I thought, what if I tried to draw the coat of arms myself. I started to get acquainted with their design, I drew a coat of arms for the subject organization, and it ended up on the back of the overalls, ”says Rintanen.

Last In the spring, Rintanen drew the districts of Tampere, his hometown.

There are numerous uses for coats of arms, he said. For example, neighborhood clubs can take advantage of them in their documents or on their websites, or they can make souvenirs such as mugs or shirts.

“That’s exactly the kind of use I’d like to see. That people would take possession of them. ”

Chest does not have any training in the field of graphics. He has a Master of Social Sciences in Political Science.

“Heraldry is just a hobby for me. I myself have learned to make and draw coats of arms with Adobe Illustrator. ”

Rintasen The district councils drawn for Tampere and Helsinki have received a lot of feedback from residents – from side to side.

“One person commissioned a flag from my coat of arms for my home, while another person signaled that ‘it’s an ugly coat and we don’t want one in our residential area,'” Rintanen smiles.

And why did a young man from Tampere want to do the district councils in Helsinki?

“When I had the coat of arms of my hometown done, Helsinki was kind of a natural choice. However, it is the capital of Finland. Of the Finnish cities, I have In addition to Tampere, I have a lot of connections to Helsinki, and I also have some information about the history of Helsinki. ”

Of all Of the 61 districts in Helsinki, Rintonen’s favorite is the coat of arms of Kalasatama. It has three fish-tailed lions, and the pattern is cut off by a wave.

“It was the last coat of arms I drew. I didn’t really want to come up with a topic for that, but I didn’t want any boring anchors or anything like that, ”he says.

Therefore, Rintanen became acquainted with the history of Kalasatama. It turned out that the English Rock used to be located on Sörnäistenniemi, in the area of ​​what is now Kalasatama. It was named after English ships that loaded a lot of timber abroad in the late 19th century.

Much of the rock was blown up when the East Road was built. After the construction of the fishing port, there was practically nothing left of the rock.

“Heraldry is an old art form, and often the inspiration comes from the past, so I took the idea of ​​the English Rock as the source. The coat of arms has three lions, as does the coat of arms of England. Fish tails, on the other hand, refer to the port and the name of the area, ”says Rintanen.

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Rintanen’s favorite is the coat of arms of Kalasatama. It has three fish-tailed lions, and the pattern is cut off by a wave.

What about could Rintanen, a barefoot from Tampere, imagine moving to Helsinki someday?

Yes, and possibly even in the near future, as many of the jobs in his field are located in Helsinki, he answers.

“Even though my heart is in Tampere, I believe that Helsinki can fit in,” Rintanen says.

In Helsinki, Rinta is fascinated by urban culture and especially architecture.

“It is possible to live and be in a relatively rare urban environment in Helsinki. You can walk for miles, and you will only get to closed blocks and stone-foot shops. In Tampere, on the other hand, there is no need to walk very long distances when it comes to prefabricated houses and urban planning in the 1960s and 1970s. ”

So far, Rintanen has visited Helsinki as if as a tourist. From that point of view, the city seems beautiful, historic, even valuable.

“Surely there are also negative aspects in Helsinki that you notice at the stage when you live there and the so-called honeymoon is over,” he says.

ArttU RINTANEN has already considered the next coat of arms project, but he has not yet started it.

The target could be the Turku Districts.

“The project is still at the level of an idea. I have been wondering how the people of Turku will react if a Tampere resident starts drawing coats of arms for them. The reception may not be as warm as elsewhere, ”Rintanen laughs.