HELSINKI SITES

                                               A Charming City

Senate Square was once a town square with a church and city hall, but its buildings were burned in 1808 during the Swedish-Russian war. Senate Square surrounded by pale yellow buildings form a unique and cohesive example of Neo-Classical architecture.  The church was rebuilt using St. Petersburg as a model.  The statue in the center of the square is of Czar Alexander II. Many university buildings are in the immediate area. The University accommodates 36,000 students, 60 percent of whom are female.  Diagonally across the square, the small blue stone building, 1757, with the slanted roof is one of only two pre-Russian-conquest buildings remaining in Helsinki,

Café Kapelli  built in 1860 has a glass tower on each end.   In the 19^th century the old fashion gazebo-like oasis was a popular hangout for intellectuals and artists. We had a fantastic lunch here and were able to sit in one of the glass towers to people-watch while we ate. Our meal was topped of with a scrumptious cloudberry dessert. I first ran into cloudberries in Newfoundland. They look like a raspberry and are about the same size, but are yellow-orange in color.

Market Square, Kauppatori, at the harbor end of the Esplanade, also is known as the Fish Market. It is a lively place and the heart of the city.  It mostly contains produce with a few souvenir and crafts kiosks intermingled. The fish stalls are on the outside facing the water. The fountain, dating to 1908, showcases a mermaid surrounded by water-spewing dolphins, and is a symbol of the city. The obelisk in the center of the market is called Czarina Stone. The double headed eagle, a remnant of imperial Russian rule, is the city’s first public monument and dates to 1835.

Esplanade Park, stretching west to the main thoroughfare Mannerheimintie, was established in the 1830s.  Running from Market Square to the Swedish Theater the boulevard has a broad expanse of trees and gardens in the middle. Small shops, department stores, and cafés abound. In the center of the wide center path of the esplanade was a series of bronze sculptures called Las Meninas.

     The sculptures looked like Spanish women dressed for a ball. Graduated in size, they held out their skirts like they were ready to enter a room or climb a flight of stairs. I understood they were part of a rotating exhibit, but I don’t know how long they were in the park.

The four people on the façade of Train Station, 1916, represent peasant farmers with their lanterns entering the capital. The building is an easily recognized landmark. The granite monument represents a transition between National Romanticism and the new Functional style. Besides domestic train travel there are three daily trips to Russia.

Helsinki’s blue and white City Hall, was designed in 1833 as a hotel. The building, located on the southern side of Senate Square, dates back to the 1700s. Until the early 1900s the City Hall Quarter was the center of commerce and social life in Helsinki. This building has housed City Hall since 1930. The mayor’s office is above the large balcony overlooking the harbor.

See posts: Rock Church 4-4-12   Sebelius monument 9-16-12   

                  Churches 7-27-11      Finnish Trivia 5-11-11