Mannerheiminaukio (“Mannerheim Square”) is the city’s old market square, where trading continued until 1936. The current name of Mannerheim Square was brought into use in 1942, named after respected field marshal Mannerheim. On the edge of the square there is the imperial-style old Town Hall (1842), which was designed by Carl Ludvig Engel and built by the ship-owner and commercial councillor Anders Donner. Over the years the Town Hall has acted as the city jail, customs house, magistrate’s court, and treasurer’s court. The city’s magistrates and council were convened there, as well as parties for the burghers. The building opposite the town hall was the second stone building to be erected in the city. Merchant and ship-owner Anders Roos constructed it in 1810 as a residence for his daughter´s family. The city’s first permanent hospital, the Libeck hospital, was opened on the upper floor of the building in 1853. In the middle of the square there is the “Statue of Freedom” (Vapaudenpatsas) sculpted by Johan Münsterhjelm in 1920.
The Chydenius Park