Violanpuisto has grassy areas, a rocky outcrop, a sand pitch, a local sports ground and a temporary kindergarten. The park is located in the north-eastern part of Hermann, close to the Hermann waterfront road and Vellamonokatu.
A temporary pavilion day-care centre was built on the Violanpuisto sports field. The construction of the kindergarten started in autumn 2018 and it opened at the beginning of March 2019. The construction of the kindergarten and the building site were the subject of intense disputes and the neighbourhood appealed to the Administrative Court. It is a temporary kindergarten for more than 100 children.
On 14 August 2023, the body of an adult man was found in Violet Park. Police cordoned off the park with cordons. No foul play is suspected in the case. The case was first reported by MTV News. Go to news (mtvuutiset.fi).
Tumppi Varonen calls Violanpuisto the lower field, or town hall, in her book Poika, joka taht taht willoo lentää.
At one time, Oihonnankatu, which no longer exists, ran along this road. The other end of the street was roughly at the Vega Street 12 and the other end on Hämeentie at the beginning of the current viaduct and close to Hämeentie 103:a. The street ran along the western side of the present Violanpuisto and across Haukilahdenkatu. The street can be found on the Helsinki City Map Service (map.hel.fi) from historical data. Oihonnankatu is well represented on maps from the 1940s and earlier.
Päivitetty 22.12.2025
2 replies on “Violanpuisto”
Hello,
what a great job you've done putting together the content of this site!
Having spent my childhood in Hermann in the 1970s and moved back there, it was the image of the stone steps south of Saarenkatu in Violan Park that made me think of that part of the park.
The park used to be larger - the outermost house at Saarenkatu 15 was built on the site of the former park, and the small gravel field at the end of Vegankatu is now largely a house yard.
An asphalt embankment ran from that gravel field to the playground below. There is still some old asphalt next to the maple trees on the slope. The stone steps are part of the wooden stairs that led from the middle of the embankment to the gravel field above. Those steps were particularly busy in winter, when city workers built a chute on the asphalt embankment, which was frozen into a swift iceberg. Children scrambled up those stairs and queued for their turn to go down the hill.
By the 1980s, the freezing of the hill was discontinued; perhaps it was considered too dangerous, the winters became less reliable or the number of children in the area decreased. Who knows, but the hill was hugely popular at the time. But it seems there are still enough skiers on those slopes today, even if the downhill direction is transverse to the one of yesteryear.
Thank you very much for your comment! This is exactly the kind of comments I had hoped for, complementing my own knowledge. I had to read quite a few times your very clear description of the hill, so that I could get some idea of where the embankment has run. I myself have spotted asphalt in the hill and wondered a bit about it, but now it became clear.
By the way, it would be fun if someone or somewhere found old photos of the Violet Park, I could even offer a place to publish them on my website, with credits of course. The same goes for other photos related to Hermanni, of course.