HELSINKI, FINLAND

        HELSINKI CHURCHES

After a walking tour and a general overview of the Helsinki's city center, we walked up to see the Russian Orthodox Church, Uspenski Ccathedral. Sitting on a hill, it dominates the skyline and is easily seen from the waterfront.  Built in 1868, it is the largest Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe. The dark red brick exterior supports thirteen gilded cupolas (onion domes). The church is huge and the inside is gorgeous and much less cluttered than the Russian orthodox churches I saw a couple of years before in Russia. Fine icons decorate the inside. Although it hovers over Market Square it also faces the Lutheran Church---just as Russian culture faces Europe.

            From there we headed for the Lutheran Church.  With its prominent green dome and twelve apostles overlooking the harbor, the church is hard to miss. The master-piece of Carl Ludwig Engel was finished in 1854 after 20 years of construction.   The huge staircase leading up to the cathedral is a favorite meeting place for locals. The interior is considered to be plain, but to me it seemed understated elegance with its graceful curved archways decorated with intricate geometric designs.          

This church is the centerpiece of Senate Square. Once a town square with a church and city hall, 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.  A statue of Czar Alexander II is in the center of the square. 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.