Maria Silfavin Park, just off Oulu City Hall, is one of the first spots anyone brings visitors – mostly to see the little bronze statues by local artist Sanna Koivisto entitled ‘The Passing of Time 2005.’ Figures of various citizens lined up on a wall in historical costume represent the march of local history – but how, where, who’s the guy in the top hat selling encyclopedias, and what do the locals think of it all, anyway?

I interview several people passing by on their way to home, work, or bingo.

“This is a part of Oulu I really like,” remarks Celia, 31, from France, pushing a pram down Torikatu. “It represents history,” she continues, but doesn’t specify what part of history she means. Ivana, her Polish friend, agrees. “They look nice – don’t understand what they mean, but it’s good that they’re occupying the space.”

Villikki, 72, has the same flavor of opinion. “I like them, but I’d like to say one thing: there’s no way to know what they are. They should have something there, a sign for instance. Do anything about it?”

It’s clear some more strenuous journalism is called for. A walk to the tourist office provides me with a list of the statue names in English, and I settle down to the city website, where some digging around on the Finnish pages gives me background information.

From the right, it seems the figures in depict the town before it was officially established by Charles IX King of Sweden in 1605 (the year Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the English Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder), though the Swedes had already completed Oulu castle in 1590.  The plinth shows the established town start with a statue of Charles himself, while the second statue the pastor shows the importance of religion and the new church.

Next come the wife, the farmhand, a fur hunter, and the fisherman, cribbing the local industry of the early 1600s.  Way back then Oulu was quite famous then for its salmon, and had less than a thousand residents. In the 1700s, more people and industry arrived and nature handed the town a new deepwater harbor; in 1724 the flooding river opened a new channel to the sea, and Toppila Inlet was born. Soon after (in 1765), Oulu was ‘allowed’ to trade with foreigners and in 1776 became the capital of the province.

With all the interest in ships, tar (for caulking the hulls), hauling, and shipbuilding became the rage, and the next statues depict nautical dealings and the extra people they brought to the town; in order, the longshoreman, the tar barrel roller, the burgher, the sea captain, the noble lady with her children, fisher boys, a cabin boy and a craftsman. To show the ups and downs of life, these are followed by an underprivileged woman begging and a fashionable lady.

By the end of the 1700s, as Napoleon was marrying Josephine, Oulu with a population of 3400 was the second largest town in Finland after Turku, the then capital. However, by the end of the war of Finland (1808-1809), the population had decreased to around 2000. In 1822 a fire burned down most of the town, the town hall, church and almost 330 houses, only 65 remaining. The next statue is therefore the courageous fireman.

More people continue to arrive in the 1900s with the continuing important of tar for building ships; Oulu’s commercial fleet was Finland’s biggest. The next statues are, accordingly, the officer of a sharpshooter battalion, the market place vendor, the postman and the carpenter. And in 1883, just as the Brooklyn bridge was opened in New York, the population of Oulu exceeded 10,000.

In early 20thC, the motor car hits the streets, bringing more industry. Toppila pulp mill opens in 1931, and the Nuottasaari pulp mill in 1937. The statues, reflecting this, are the chauffeur, the female office worker, the shopkeeper, the housewife and her children, one of them musically inclined and the other more interested in sport. Also the female doctor, the mechanic, the paperworker, and the star boy, one of the three wise men and a quirk of Oulu’s cultural scene.

By 1950, when Russia claims to have an atomic bomb, over 50,000 are living in Oulu. The University opens in 1958, directing the city towards its current IT and Hi-Tech industry focus. Nokia opens its first Oulu divisions in 1973 and by the 1980s the City comes up with Technopolis and asserts itself as a ‘high-tech centre of expertise.’ More and more people arrive, pushing the Oulu population to 100,000 by 1990.

The next two statues depict modern life and commons sights: the female student dressed in jeans and the businessman with a mobile phone at his ear.

At over 130,000, Oulu is now one the fastest growing populations of Finland, with an average age of around 35, a high birthrate, and young people arriving from around the country and abroad. Hence the last statue shows a small boy, Martti the future child, sitting at the end of the granite plinth looking towards the city.

Personally, I love the sculpture. To my mind it’s very personal and evocative. Sometimes you’ll see a five-cent piece in the hand of the begging woman, and in winter, Martti, the future child, often has a small scarf tied around his neck.

I think it is a fitting tribute to the first 400 years of the city.  Cheers, Sanna.