Work of town planner Ehrenström and architect Carl Ludvig Engel , Senate Square comprises a collection of monumental buildings typifying the aristocratic elegance of neo-Classicism. The senate building was completed in 1820, the university in 1832..

Right in the heart of the city, between the Station, with its refined lines of Finnish Art nouveau, and the functionalist Parliament building, Kiasma, inaugurated in 1998, is the work of Steven Holl. The exterior combines metals (copper, zinc, titani..

Built essentially to designs by Eliel Saarinen , one of the creators of the Finnish pavilion at the Paris Universal Exhibition (1900), the station (1909-1916) constitutes a model of “objective architecture”. Stone, glass and iron come together to cr..

The collections held in the Fine Arts museum provide an insight into Finnish art from the 18C up to the 1960's. Finnish pictorial art (aside schools and exhibitions) is fairly recent, with the exception of anonymous mural frescos found in churches an..

Constructed between 1905 and 1910 by Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen, this building with high steeple and circular tower, decorated with Kalevala -inspired frescoes by Askeli Gallen-Kallela (1928), was a latecomer in the canon of National Romantici..

Between the Swedish Theatre to the West (the current building dates from 1866, replacing the wooden theatre built by Engel) and the Market Square to the East, lie two avenues lined with neo-Renaissance houses and luxury designer boutiques border..

This building embodies the austere simplicity of Nordic classicism: four peristyles, each with six Corinthian columns surmounted by a pediment bearing three apostles in acroterions, make up the four porches. The peristyle overlooking the Senate Squar..

A short distance South from the Senate Square, providing a sharp contrast to its noble neighbour, is the Market Square . Here the bustle of everyday life prevails, with the cries of market traders, the hotchpotch of culinary aromas, the sound of po..

A low circular wall surmounted by a copper cupola: from the exterior, there is no evidence that this church, designed by the Suomalainen brothers in 1960 and built between 1968 and 1969, has been set below ground level, as far down as the rock which ..

It was designed by Alvar Aalto as one of a collection of cultural edifices in the new Town Centre destined to be built around the Bay of Töölön. The central part of the building was completed in 1971, with the addition of a conference wing in 1975...

Glittering, with its white ceramics and Finnish granite, the Opera house bordering the Bay of Töölön, and constructed by Hyvämäki, Karhunen and Parkkinen was inaugurated in 1993. Although it accommodates a wide repertoire of international opera, a la..

The museum comprises around 100 18C-19C buildings (numbers given here are those used by the museum). The Niemelä farm (7) demonstrates that saunas could be used as temporary shelter. Karuna church (8) is the oldest building (1686); the Carelian..

First known as Sveaborg (the Fortress of Sweden) at the time of its construction in 1748 to protect Helsinki from Russian invasion, it only acquired its current name (Suomenlinna) after Independence. By this time the protective function of the fortre..

This was the home of the parliamentarian, publisher and patron Amos Anderson , built in 1912-13, by the architects Palmqvist and Sjöström, and left by Anderson to the state. Today, it displays his collection of Scandinavian work from the 19 and part..

The Culture Museum , opened in 1999, is part of the national museum of Finland. Its major collections from all over the world. Its collections were brought together by explorers, missionaries, scholars and art collectors. The objective is to show th..

A huge construction in red granite, the Parliament , fronted by imposing steps leading up to the colonnade, is the work of Siren , inaugurated in 1931 to receive the 200 members of the single Chamber elected every four years by universal suffrage ...

The collections displayed on the ground floor of this museum illustrate the development of Finnish design from the Carelianism of the 1880s and 1890s, through the glory days of the 1950s and 1960s and up to the present day. It takes in Art Nouveau (W..

An orthodox cathedral, erected on the Katajanokka peninsula at the time when Finland was under Russian dependency, Ouspenski was consecrated in 1868. Its bulb-shaped domes are reminiscent of Russian churches and it was indeed a Russian architect, Gor..

Patron of Finnish culture, the professor of aesthetics Fredryk Sygnaeus (1807-1881) had his summer residence in the Kaivopuisto quarter, which, in the 19C was still a spa frequented by Russian aristocrats. Converted into a museum, (the first to b..

The museum, set up in the home of Baron Gustaf Mannerheim (1867-1951), retraces the prestigious career of this soldier (medals, uniforms, arms...) and statesman. The rooms that he occupied during his stays in Petersburg and Warsaw have been reconst..