The Archbishop's house

The Archbishop and his spouse live in the Archbishop’s house on the corner of Agricolankatu and Piispankatu in Turku. Archbishop Luoma is the twelfth occupant of the Archbishop’s house in Turku.

The house, completed in 1890, is the third since Bishop Karl Fredrik Mellander, for whom the first bishop’s house was completed in 1763, purchased the site on the banks of the River Aura. The house’s mews date from 1888. The first occupant of the current house was Archbishop Torsten Thure Renvall.

The building was designed by Jac Ahrenberg (who died in 1914), who was a prolific architect of government public buildings. He designed, among other buildings, the Helsinki Synagogue and the wooden church in Kajaani. In keeping with the retrospective style of the nineteenth century he combined influences from different periods. In the 1930s the interior of the Archbishop’s house was remodelled in a functionalist style.

More information about the Archbishop’s house and its history can be found in Archbishop Emeritus Jukka Paarma’s Arkkipiispantalo. Historia ja asukkaat (The Archbishop’s House: History and Occupants, Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2015).