In 1887, a branch of the Finnish Bank was established in Serdobol, replacing the money exchange office opened 21 years earlier. Since 1905, the bank branch was located in the Leander house. In 1914, architect Uno Ulberg created a project for a separate building for the bank, with the design of the operating hall handled by Kaarlo Borg. The tiled stoves for the building were designed not only by Ulberg himself but also by Walter Tome [eng]; the stove in the vestibule is the work of architect Lars Sonk. In 1915, a dedicated building for the branch was constructed on Brahenkatu Street (now Väinämöinen Street) under the supervision of construction master Kalle Puolamäki. The granite for the construction was taken from the Nukuttalahti deposit on the island of Riekkalansaari.

After the transfer of Sortavala to the USSR, the building housed the local branch of the Agro-Industrial Bank. On April 6, 1988, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the Karelian ASSR, the former bank building was recognized as an architectural monument and placed under state protection as a cultural heritage site of local significance. After the collapse of the USSR, the building was occupied by the Sortavala branch of the Bank of Russia.

The building is located in Sortavala at 4 Väinämöinen Street; it occupies a typical position in the street’s development and faces the square of the same name with its main facade. The composition of the two-story building consists of three volumes shaped as parallelepipeds; the central volume is larger than the side ones. The building is constructed of brick with reinforced concrete floors and faced with gray granite, also finished with gray abrasive plaster. The roof is flat with a metal roofing cover, and internal drainage is implemented. The total length of the building along the street is 29 meters, with the main volume measuring 15 × 20 meters.

The main facade of the main volume is symmetrical and clad in granite blocks laid with orderly joint bonding across its entire height. The lower part of the facade, up to the end of the straight window sections, is faced with larger, roughly finished “shuba-style” blocks. The first-floor windows have semicircular tops, with granite slabs at their lower parts resting on massive shaped granite brackets. The second-floor windows are rectangular, decorated with voluminous granite casings in the form of alternating plates equal in shape and size; they also have granite slabs at the bottom, and above the windows are trapezoidal bas-reliefs designed as keystones. At the axis of symmetry in the center of the main facade is a door; like the first-floor windows, it has a semicircular top highlighted by a large trapezoidal keystone. On either side of it are bas-reliefs in the form of quadrangular pyramids inscribed in circles. The entrance is emphasized by an open porch accessed by a granite staircase, flanked by two parapets, each topped with monograms — “FB” on the left and “SP” on the right — above which are octagonal granite blocks decorated around the perimeter with carved geometric patterns. The main facade is finished with a stepped cornice with mutules beneath it.

The courtyard facade of the main volume is also symmetrical and highlighted by a risalit with rounded side walls, ending between the first and second floors with a stepped cornice, above which is a triangular pediment with volutes. The side volumes are also two-story but lower than the main one and set back into the block. The left volume has a door highlighted by an open porch with stairs; above the door is a sandrik in the form of a semicircular pediment decorated with a bas-relief depicting a vase with flowers. The first floor of the right volume features an arch leading into the courtyard, its contour framed by an archivolt; in place of the keystone is a cartouche with a relief monogram. The walls of the side volumes are rusticated to the height of the “shuba-style” blocks facing the main volume, with the rustication of the right volume converging toward the arch. On the second floor of each side volume are three narrow windows, above which are plant ornaments. The decoration of the side volumes is completed by a stepped cornice, including a frieze decorated with Ionic elements with pointed details.

The interior layout of the building is organized around a two-story operating hall located in the center of the main volume, which has a rectangular plan with two beveled corners on the entrance side. Numerous bank rooms, including the vestibule, are connected to the hall; a two-flight staircase leading to the second floor is located in the right volume, while a spiral staircase serves the same function in the left volume. The second-floor rooms are connected by a balcony running over the operating hall. The interiors are richly decorated, with the operating hall being the most lavishly adorned. Its floor is covered with mosaic tiles made of small hexagonal and larger square tiles. The walls are paneled with narrow, vertically grooved redwood panels that do not reach the ceiling and rest on a profiled stone cornice emphasized by a row of dentils. Paneled doors leading to service rooms are made of redwood; above the door to the vestibule is a semicircular window with imposts, the lower parts of which are decorated with plant reliefs. The vestibule floor is paved with hexagonal tiles, and the walls up to the door height are faced with wavy bronzed stone, topped by a row of mutules. The main entrance door is double-leafed, decorated on the inside with a plant ornament, and has a narrow pentagonal window in each leaf, with the window tops pointing downward. These windows are framed with metal casings, the sides of which are decorated with geometric patterns, and the upper part is curved and complemented by a bas-relief plant composition. The bank’s entrance doors are decorated on the inside with plant-themed bas-reliefs. The bank premises still preserve colored and white tiled stoves created according to the designs of architects Uno Werner Ulberg, Walter Tome, and Lars Sonk.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_of_the_Finland_Bank_(Sortavala)