Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Helsinki is the only European capital with no medieval past. Although it was
founded in the 16th century by the Swedes in hopes of countering Tallinn as
a strategic Baltic port, it never amounted to more than a village until the 18th
century. Then, in 1746, Sweden built a huge fortress on an island outside its
harbor, and the village boomed as it supplied the fortress. After taking over
Finland in 1809, the Russians decided to move Finland's capital and university
closer to St. Petersburg—from Turku to Helsinki. They hired a young German
architect, Carl Ludvig Engel, to design new public buildings for Helsinki and
told him to use St. Petersburg as a model. This is why the oldest parts of Hel-
sinki (around Market Square and Senate Square) feel so Russian—stone build-
ings in yellow and blue pastels with white trim and columns. Hollywood used
Helsinki for the films
Gorky Park
and
Dr. Zhivago,
because filming in Russia
was not possible during the Cold War.
Though the city was part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, most
of its residents still spoke Swedish, which was the language of business and
culture. In the mid-1800s, Finland began to industrialize. The Swedish upper
class in Helsinki expanded the city, bringing in the railroad and surrounding
the old Russian-inspired core with neighborhoods of four- and five-story apart-
ment buildings, including some Art Nouveau masterpieces. Meanwhile, Finns
moved from the countryside to Helsinki to take jobs as industrial laborers. The
Finnish language slowly acquired equal status with Swedish, and eventually
Finnish speakers became the majority in Helsinki (though Swedish remains a
co-official language).
Since downtown Helsinki didn't exist until the 1800s, it was more conscien-
tiously designed and laid out than other European capitals. With its many ar-
chitectural overleafs and fine Neoclassical and Art Nouveau buildings, Hel-
sinkioftenturnsguestsintostudentsofurbandesignandplanning.Goodneigh-
borhoods for architecture buffs to explore are Katajanokka, Kruununhaka, and
Eira. If you're intrigued by what you see, look for the English-language guide
to Helsinki architecture (by Arvi Ilonen) in bookstores.
All of this makes Helsinki sound like a very dry place. It's not. Despite its
sometimes severe cityscape and chilly northern latitude, the city bursts with
