Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
Free; June-Aug Mon-Sat 9:00-24:00, Sun 12:00-24:00; Sept-May
Mon-Sat 9:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00; sometimes closes for events; on Senate Square,
www.helsinginseurakunnat.fi
.
In summer, free organ concerts are held on Sundays at 20:00.
VisitingtheCathedral:
Finished in 1852, the interior is pure architectural truth. Open a
pew gate and sit, surrounded by the saints of Protestantism, to savor Neoclassical nirvana.
Physically, this church is perfectly Protestant—austere and unadorned—with the emphasis
on preaching (prominent pulpit) and music (huge organ). Statuary is limited to the local Re-
formation big shots: Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon (Luther's Reformation sidekick),
and the leading Finnish reformer, Mikael Agricola. A follower of Luther at Wittenberg,
Agricola brought the Reformation to Finland. He also translated the Bible into Finnish and
is considered the father of the modern Finnish language. Agricola's Bible is to Finland what
the Luther Bible is to Germany and the King James Bible is to the English-speaking world.
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SenateSquare
—Once a town square with a church and City Hall, this square's original
buildings were burned in 1808. Later, after Finland became a grand duchy of the Russian
Empire, the czar sent in architect Carl Ludvig Engel (a German who had lived and worked
in St. Petersburg) to give the place some Neo-class. The result: the finest Neoclassical
square in Europe.
Survey Senate Square from the top of the Lutheran Cathedral steps. The Senate building
(now the prime minister's office) is on your left. The small, blue, stone building with the
slanted mansard roof in the far-left corner, from 1757, is one of just two pre-Russian-con-
