MARKET SQUARE
For snacks, shopping or just strolling around.
SENATE SQUARE
A great urban work of art, presided over by the Cathedral.
USPENSKI
The other great Church has a wondrous interior..
THE ESPLANADE
Helsinki's favourite avenue for a hundred years.
SUOMENLINNA
One of the world's great offshore fortresses.
MAIN SIGHTS
Most first-time visitors to Helsinki head for the Market Square in the South Harbour, for its sparkling atmosphere and because it is an ideal starting point. The Senate Square and the Lutheran and Orthodox Cathedrals are only minutes away by foot.
Esplanade Park and the Alexander shopping street are equally close, and the ferries to Suomenlinna Island Fortress depart from the waterfront.
Suomenlinna is some distance away and covers a large area. If you intend to go there, it makes sense to do so early in the day, so as not to find yourself marooned as your ship sails.
Market Square and the Market Hall
Fruit, vegetables, fresh and smoked fish and snacks have been sold in the open air near the South Harbour since the 17th century and more recently dolls, clothes and wooden products too. For most visitors, the bright stalls of the modern Market Square are their most enduring memory of Finland’s capital.
| Market stalls | |
|---|---|
| Mon - Fri | 6:00 –18:00 (6 p.m.) |
| Sat – Sun* | 6:00 – 16:00 (4.p.m.) |
| * Open Sundays 18 May – 28 Sep 2008 | |
| Closed Midsummer Sat 21.6. and Sun 22.6. | |
Even today, fishing boats moor at the quay to sell their fish direct to the public. This corner of the harbour is called the cholera basin. A skipper from the archipelago died here from the disease in 1897.
In the middle of the Market Square is Helsinki’s oldest public monument, the Tsarina’s Stone. It is an obelisk of red granite topped by a globe and a double-headed eagle, the emblem used by the Tsars of Russia. The eagle’s breastplate shows a lion, the coat of arms of Finland. The monument was erected in 1835 in honour of the visit by Tsar Nikolai I and the Tsarina Alexandra, who stepped ashore here.
| Market Hall open | |
|---|---|
| Mon - Fri | 8:00 –18:00 (6 p.m.) |
| Sat | 8:00 – 16:00 (4.p.m.) |
| Sun | Closed |
In 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution and Finland’s independence, Russian seamen took down the globe and eagle, but the Finns kept them safe and they were put back in 1971. There are few places anywhere else where original monuments to the old Russian royal family still exist.
Nearby is the old market hall. It is Finland’s oldest, having been built in 1889, but is now more like a delicatessen than a market place.
Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral
One block north of the market is the Senate Square, presided over by the Lutheran Cathedral with its striking green copper domes. 
The centre of Helsinki has been here since 1640 but the square and its surrounding neo-classical buildings date from the start of the 19th century, when Helsinki became the capital of Finland. To make room for the new centre, an old church and its graveyard were flattened.
The buildings here are the work of Carl Ludvig Engel (1778-1840), a German architect born and trained in Berlin, who moved at the age of 30 to Tallinn and later St Petersburg. In 1816 Tsar Alexander I of Russia approved Engel’s appointment as architect for the rebuilding of Helsinki and all his subsequent work was in Finland.
His greatest work was the design of the great Lutheran Cathedral, first known as St. Nikolai’s Church. Completing the designs alone took a decade and building work did not begin until 1830. It wasn't finished when he died.
The first building on the square was the Senate House on its east side, completed in 1820. The University Building on the west side was ready by 1830 and its neighbouring elegant library by 1840.
The Cathedral was not originally on the Senate Square, and its main entrance is still on its western side. It was originally separated from the square by the Main Guard, a long, low building, which was built before it.
However, Tsar Alexander dabbled in architecture and, after work on the Cathedral had begun, he ordered the Main Guard to be demolished and replaced by monumental steps. Engel hated the change because he wanted the square to be enclosed by buildings on all sides. Today the Tsar’s stairway is seen as one of the square’s most exciting features. Sometimes amateurs get it right.
| Lutheran Cathedral visiting times | |
|---|---|
| Mon - Sat | 9:00 –18:00 (6 p.m.) |
| Sundays | Jun – Aug 12:00 – 20:00 (8.p.m.) |
After Engel’s death, another architect made other changes that were not all improvements. The statues of hysterical apostles threatening to launch themselves off the roof look completely out of place and so they are. They were copied from St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg.
Fortunately, next to the bright green of the domes, you don't really notice them. The number of domes is also an afterthought. The four smaller ones top corner towers that were added to strengthen the building. Even so, the central dome couldn't support heavy bells so two bell towers were built in the yard.
Like most Lutheran churches its interior is bright and airy but uninteresting; there are no relics to examine or towers to climb. But the view of it from the square is breathtaking, and so is the view of Helsinki from the top of the steps.
The statue of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in the middle of the square was erected half a century later. 
This is not the man who commissioned the building of Helsinki but one of his successors. The Finns have a high opinion of Alexander II because he allowed them some independence.
In Poland and Ukraine Alexander suppressed national movements, so perhaps he used Finland as an isolated test bed for reforms. Anyway, the Finns thanked him for it and preserved his statue. The Russians tore down their own statue of him, in the Kremlin, during the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Senate House is now occupied by parts of the government, including the Prime Minister’s Office, so tours are not possible. The University on the opposite side of the square doesn't organize tours either but, if no events are being held there, the doorman will happily show visitors the grand auditorium. On Sunday's however, he isn't there and it is locked.
| University Library opening times | |
|---|---|
| Mon - Fri | 8:00 –18:00 (6 p.m.) |
| July Sats | Closed |
| Other Sats | 8:00 – 16:00 (4.p.m.) |
| Sundays | Closed |
The most exciting interior is in the building is next door, the University Library, which is also the National Library of Finland. Engel drew three alternative drawings for a library building and Tsar Nicholas I selected the grandest one. The halls are symmetrically placed and the ground plan resembles the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.
Under Russian law, dating from 1828 and lasting till 1917, publishers throughout the Russian empire had to send a free copy of every publication to the University of Helsinki. Thanks to this, the library has a major collection of Slavonic works as well as those in minority languages of the empire: Armenian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Georgian, and Arabic.
The entrance to the Lutheran Cathedral is on the west side opposite the University Library, not at the top of the steps as most visitors assume. Entrance to its crypt is on its north side.
Uspenski Cathedral
While the white cathedral on Senate Square is used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the red-brick Uspenski Cathedral is for Orthodox Christians.
| Uspenski Cathedral | |
|---|---|
| Mon - Sat | 9:00 –16:00 (4 p.m.) |
| Sundays | 12:00 – 18:00 (6p.m.) |
| No tourists admitted | May 1, 17, 27, 28 June 22, 23 August 14, 15 September 8, 14 |
Services (in Finnish) |
|
| Saturdays | Vigil at 18:00 |
| Sundays | Liturgy at 10:00 |
The Uspenski Cathedral was built some 20 years after the Lutheran one. It is not much smaller, although Orthodox believers are a tiny minority in Finland, numbering only about 60 000 members.
The church is consecrated to the passing away of the mother of Christ and the name Uspenski comes from the Russian word for this. 
If it were a Roman Catholic Church it would be called the Cathedral of the Assumption. It was designed by a Russian architect, Alexey Gornostaev.
Apart from its thirteen glorious gilded cupolas, symbolizing Christ and his apostles, it is a ponderous building, apparently designed to use up a great surplus of bricks. Indeed, the bricks have their own story. They were salvaged from the ruins of Bomarsund fortress in Aland, which had been destroyed by the British-French fleet in 1854 during the Crimean War.
Reusing the bricks like this was a way of mixing piety with nationalism, as the Russian Orthodox Church liked to do. The Orthodox Church in Finland today doesn't look to Moscow; it is part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
But in contrast to its facade, the Uspenski has a wondrous interior. A large wall of icons and religious paintings – called an iconostasis – separates the sanctuary from the nave, where worshippers stand. The arches of the central tower are supported by four massive granite columns. There is no crypt, by the way, because soon after the church was completed, the bedrock gave way and the area beneath it had to be filled.
The Cathedral is enormously popular with the faithful as well as visitors. At Easter it even has to issue tickets to restrict attendance. Most of the time it welcomes tourists but visits are not appreciated during services and weddings.
Esplanade Park and Alexander Street
The Esplanade is about half a kilometre long, an area of park benches, coffee houses and design shops. Alexander Street offers about 20 clothes and fashion stores plus jewellery, restaurants, bars and two shopping malls. The two streets run parallel and are separated by just one block.
From the Market Place, head west down the Esplanade and return along Alexander Street for a comfortable round tour of 1½ kilometres or nearly a mile. To tackle the shopping before refreshment, go in the reverse direction.
The Esplanade Park begins from a fountain, topped by a nude figure, surrounded by spouting sea lions. The sculptor, Ville Vallgren called his work "the Mermaid" but the Swedish-language press dubbed her Havis Amanda or "Amanda of the Sea" and the name stuck.
When she was unveiled here in 1908, fine people were outraged. Amanda was much curvier than the women of classical statues, who tended to be built like men. At 194 centimetres tall, there was also lots of her. 
Understandably, the sea lions gathered around her had their tongues hanging out. It seemed rather indecent in a country that had just given women the vote.
It was even whispered that Vallgren, who was working in Paris when he sculpted her, had used a woman of the street as his model, though he insisted she was a 19-year-old innocent called Marcelle Delquini. In any case Amanda weathered the criticism and wears her years well.
Continuing in to the park, you pass Kappeli, or the Chapel, one of the oldest restaurants in Helsinki. After the park was created at the start of the 19th century, it became the place where fashionable people strolled on Sundays.
The restaurant was opened in 1867, a building of high ceilings and great windows.
The Esplanade itself is more an avenue than a park, half a kilometre long but only about 50 meters (yards) wide, with roads running along its flanks. There is little of interest on its south side so the choice is between walking down the path in the middle or along the street on the north flank, where there are shops and coffee houses.
In the park’s centre is a statue of J.L. Runeberg. He is remembered by Finns as the author of an epic cycle of verses, Tales of Ensign Stool, that describe the events of the Finnish War of 1808-09, when Finland was lost by Sweden to Russia. Its prologue was a poem entitled Our Land, which was later adopted as the national anthem. It is surely the world’s least militant anthem; in its original language, Swedish, the word Finland doesn't appear till the fourth verse (which is never sung).
At the end of the park is the Swedish Theatre, with its restaurant terrace. At the end of the North Esplanade is Stockmann’s department store and its great bookshop. Turn right here and walk one block north, returning to where you started along Alexander Street (Aleksanterinkatu). If you are in a hurry to get back to the Market Square, take a tram (two stops).
Suomenlinna Island Fortress
This is a trip for people who like walking and have good shoes. Although you can turn around at any point, you still have to make your way back to the ferry. There are no taxis or other public transport on Suomenlinna.
This is one of the most remarkable parts of Helsinki, an island fortress just 2½ kilometres (1½ miles) from the South Harbour market place, which is where the ferries leave from. Boats operated by the City of Helsinki reach it in 20 minutes. See Public Transport. Private ferries travel farther into the islands. Check departure and return times when you arrive at the market place, and set off early in the day rather than later.
Helsinki had been established
for 200 years before work began, in 1748, to build its coastal defences. It had been a sleepy town till then, but Russia’s power was now growing and the King of Sweden thought that Helsinki was a good place for his navy to winter. Within 50 years there were more people living on the island fortress than in Helsinki, and it had its own high society.
The complex used to be called Sveaborg, Sweden’s Fortress, and is now named Suomenlinna, the Fortress of Finland. In military terms, it was a very sorry fortress. When Finland fell to Russia in 1808, it surrendered without a fight. Its only battle was in 1855, during the Crimean War, when it was helplessly bombarded for three days by the Anglo-French fleet.
There are eight island in all. The most interesting buildings are located on the two largest. These are Iso Mustasaari, meaning Great Black Island, and Susisaari, meaning Wolf Island. Between them is Artillery Bay, crossed by a low bridge, where some private ferries dock.
The public ferry arrives at Great Black Island. Visitors walk through an vaulted gateway in the long, pink Jetty Barracks into the interior, where soldiers, merchants and artisans were allowed to build houses for their families.
Like the Jetty Barracks, these wooden houses date from the Russian period. They were family homes then and they still are.
Also Russian is the towering Alexander Nevsky Church, built in 1854. At that time it had a great onion-shaped dome, surrounded by four smaller cupolas. After independence the Finns thought it gave their capital such an alien silhouette that they changed the roof. A lighthouse was installed in the spire around the same time.
A well-worn path takes the visitor to the bridge to Wolf Island, where the main buildings from the Swedish period are. 
Just over the bridge on the right is the old dockyard. Ahead, through an arch in a great wall, is the Castle Courtyard. In its centre is the grave of the Swedish officer, Augustin Ehrensvärd, who designed the fortress. Some of the old buildings remain but many were destroyed during the Crimean War.
After Piper’s Park, the path becomes less well worn. There are many ways across the open ground of Wolf Island to the monumental King’s Gate and the fortifications that guard the sea approach to Helsinki. This is as far south as you can go, about 1.6 kilometres or 1 mile from where the public ferry arrives and departs.
Today the Fortress of Finland is a UNESCO world heritage site. Almost a thousand people live here, many of them artists. With its absence of cars Suomenlinna is an idyllic environment in summer though it can be cold, windy and wet in other seasons.
There is also a local ghost to contend with, a headless colonel killed during a rebellion in 1906, who now restlessly roams Wolf Island, but surely not on summer days.
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