4.5.1 Finland: Helsinki
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
4.5.1 Finland: Helsinki
Helsinki (Swedish: Helsingfors) is the capital and largest city
of Finland. It is in the southern coast of the country on the
Gulf of Finland and occupies the tip of a small peninsula. The
"towns" of Vantaa and Espoo are effectively suburbs of
Helsinki, and together with Kaunianen, form the metropolitan
where ca. 1 million people or nearly 20% if Finland's
population live.
The city is protected from the sea by a fringe of islands, so
that its harbor is almost landlocked. It is underlain by hard
rock, which shows in rounded masses, smothered and polished by
ice sheets. Hollows in this surface are occupied by lakes or
the sea, although some have been filled with urban waste to
create new land. Summers in Helsinki are rather mild, with an
average temperature of 18C in July; winters are pretty long and
cold, January temperatures averaging -6°C. A belt of sea ice
forms close to the coast during the winter months,but a passage
is usually kept open by icebreakers.
Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustav Vasa to compete
with the Hansaetic city of Tallinn in Estonia, some 50km south
across the Gulf of Finland, and merchants from several smaller
towns were ordered by force to move to Helsinki. It didn't
start out well, however; many of the merchants moved back to
their own towns, the place of the town had to be moved a couple
of times to more suitable locations, fires and war destroyed
the town several times, and plague killed most of the
ihabitants. For over two hundred years, Helsinki was little
more than a fishing village, but things started to improve when
the construction of the huge fortress of Sveaborg started in
1748 on the islands just outside Helsinki and brought tens of
thousands of soldiers, builders, officers, etc. to Helsinki.
In 1809 Sveaborg (the modern Finnish name is Suomenlinna)
surrendered almost without a shot to a Russian army that was
much smaller than the Swedish-Finnish garrison, and Finland
became an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. Helsinki was made
capital in 1812, the university (founded 1640) was moved there
from Turku in 1827, and the modern growth of the city started.
The war had destroyed much of the old Helsinki, and the central
city was rebuilt according to the plans of the German-born
architect C.L.Engel in grand imperial scale to show the power
of the Russian Empire. The city was bombed during the World War
II, but not as badly as it might have because of the ingenious
air raid defense (for example, a fake Helsinki was built next
to the real one and set on fire to fool the Russian bombers).
The Helsinki accords was the "declaration of policy intent"
signed in Helsinki in 1975, by the United States, Canada, the
USSR, and 32 European countries at the end of the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (1973-75). The accords
declared inviolable the frontiers of all the signatory nations,
provided for scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges,
and pledged the signatories to respect human rights, including
"freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief."
The most important sights in Helsinki include the following:
+ The Senate Square, in the very centre of Helsinki, is one of
the most beautiful neo-classical squares in Europe. On one
side of the square is situated the Senate palace, and on the
other, the maiun building of Helsinki University; above them
rises the Helsinki Cathedral (all are designed by C.L.Engel),
and in the centre of the square is a statue of Emperor
Alexander II. The university library is next to the main
building of the university is considered to be perhaps
Engel's finest work, especially the intererior is beautiful.
Slightly "hidden" behind the square is the old House of the
Estates, a fine piece of exuberant neo-renaissance
architecture with golden decorations. Ateneum Art Museum
located in the Rautatientori square nearby has the best
collection of fine arts in Finland; mostly Finnish painters
and some foreign masters of turn of the century (the rest of
the somewhat modest collection of foreign art is housed in
the Sinebrychoff museum on Bulevardi street); on the same
square is the railway station, designed by Eliel Saarinen,
which is a large and innovative Art Nouveau building (the
main entrance looks a bit like an old radio set).
+ The Market Square, in the South Harbour, is a lively
year-round market in beautiful surroundings. Beside the
square is the fountain of Havis Amanda, the symbol of
Helsinki. The Esplanade, a park avenue lined with shops and
cafes starts from the fountain; at it's other end is the
Swedish Theatre and the Stockmann department store, reputedly
the largest in Scandinavia, and certainly the best one in
Helsinki. A part of the Stockmann, although located in a
separate building next to it, is the Academic Bookstore which
is a must for every bookhoarder. They have a large selection
of books in English, as well as several other major
languages. For slightly cheaper shopping, you could take the
subway to the Itäkeskus -station (East Centre). The station
is right next to a huge suburban mall.
+ On the other end of the Market Square rises the golden,
onion-shaped cupola of the Uspensky Cathedral, representing
the other major religion in Finland, Greek Orthodoxy. Ferries
leave from the square to the 18th century island fortress of
Suomenlinna (Sveaborg), once called "the Gibraltar of the
North" (but unlike Gibraltar, never had much military
significance), located just outside the harbour; it's a
beautiful place for picnics and just strolling around.
There's also a centre for Scandinavian art in one of the old
barracks, and a museum dedicated to the man behind Sveaborg's
building, Augustin Ehrensvärd. The fortress is included in
the UNESCO list of world heritage. Tickets to the ferries
cost only about 10 FIM. There are also ferries to Korkeasaari
Zoo, also located in a nearby island. Another good place for
picnics is the Kaivopuisto park, where free pop-concerts are
held in summer.
+ Going down the Mannerheimintie (Mannerheim street), which
starts from the other end of the Esplanade, you'll pass the
following places of interest: the parliament, which is a
massive granite building that dates from the 1930's (and,
frankly, looks like something that Albert Speer might have
designed..). The Finlandia-house, by Finland's most famous
architect Alvar Aalto, built of white marble, where the
Helsinki accords were signed (it's also the home of e.g the
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra). The Italian Carrara-marble
plates haven't quite stood the test of Finnish weather, so it
might be a good idea to wear a helmet in case of falling
marble. :) The National Museum built in Art Nouveau style
displays objects from different periods of Finnish history.
The collection is relatively interesting, but displayed in a
somewhat conservative way. Also, the museum is far too small
for it's purpose. The National Opera is the next building on
the line, it's a piece of modern architecture finished in
1993, more beautiful from the inside than the outside; and
finally, the Olympic Stadium, where the 1952 Olympics were
held.
+ You might also want to check the Temppeliaukio church in the
district of Töölö, which is carved into a low hill of granite
rock and covered by a copper dome (architect Reima Pietilä).
Take a look from above, some of the staircases of the houses
next to it for example; it looks like a landed UFO.
Seurasaari island has an open-air museum of traditional
Finnish wooden houses, not quite as good as Skansen in
Stockholm or Bygdøy in Oslo, but if you're interested in folk
culture it's certainly worth checking out. Linnanmäki
amusement park is the largest in Finland; it differs in no
way from your average large amusement park, but might still
be a nice place to spend a day, especially if you're
travelling with children. Heureka Science Center in the
suburb of Vantaa is another good place to spend time with
children; it popularizes science, lets you do all sorts of
experiments of your own, and has a globular movie theatre.
You can get there by local train or a special bus line
leaving from Rautatientori. Ainola, home of the composer Jean
Sibelius, is located in Järvenpää not far from Helsinki.
+ Internet addicts visiting the city can cure their withdrawal
symptoms at the CompuCafe at Annankatu 22 in the center of
the city. Free net access is also provided by an increasing
number of public libraries, for instance the Kirjakaapeli
library in the Kaapelitehdas (Cable Factory) culture center
in western Helsinki. The place is well worth a visit on its
own right. It's a huge old factory building where cables used
to be made (hence the name), which after the closing of the
factory was spontaneously taken over by various artists,
workshops, clubs, etc., and after a brief wrestle with the
city authorities and the company owning the building, it was
turned in its entirety into a culture complex. It now houses,
in addition to the library, cafes, galleries, several
museums, repetition rooms for rock bands, classical
orchestras, martial arts clubs, theatre groups, etc, and its
a site for all sorts of cultural happenings. Getting there is
easiest by taking the subway to the Ruoholahti station.
For more information on Helsinki, you may wish to check these
URLs:
A clicable map of Helsinki WWW-resources:
<http://www.funet.fi:80/resources/maps/stadi/>
Official Helsinki city information:
<http://www.hel.fi/>
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