Helsinki Finland City Walking Tour | Beautiful in the Snow 2022
Morning everyone. Welcome to Helsinki Finland. My name is Emma. I'm a tour guide from Bergen Norway who regularly takes groups all throughout the Nordic countries and today in collaboration with Free Tours By Foot I am here in Helsinki Finland. On this beautiful snowy February morning. What
I'm going to do is I'm going to take you for a walk that will go for about 45 minutes to an hour. We will go through all of Helsinki including the historical area with Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral. We will then head up to the more modern buildings such as Finlandia Hall, created by Alva Alto and then we'll come back along the Esplanade and Finish at Market Square. If you enjoy the tour, you can find all of
the relevant links from me below in the description including my company website which is called The Hidden North. com. You can also leave me a tip through PayPal or you can buy me a coffee at Buy Me A Coffee. So, thank you so much for coming and let's go and explore Finland together.
So welcome to Helsinki Finland. The population here is about 5 20000 people within the city centre. Around 1. 2 million if you include the whole urban area. Helsinki is of course the
capital of Finland. At time of record recording the day is the third of February twenty twenty-two. The temperature is negative 10 ° Celsius, which is 16 degrees Fahrenheit and as you can see it is a beautiful snowy morning. This tour was
recorded from 10 AM about an hour and a half after sunrise. It is also a work day so we won't see too many people around especially during a time in which people are still working from home. Now Helsinki is not as old as the other Nordic capitals. Helsinki was officially founded in 1552 by King Gustafasa. To understand Helsinki we need to understand that Finland was part of Sweden for a few hundred years. So the
Swedish King Gustafasa founded Helsinki as a new market town because he wanted to compete with the neighbouring hensiatic city of Talon which located just across the Baltic Sea. So he founded Helsinki but not much came of it the town remained just a very small marketplace a very poor area up until Finland became Russian. So Finland was part of Sweden until 1809. When a huge defeat between Sweden and Russia meant
that Sweden had to give Finland to Russia. At the time the capital of Finland was Turkoo. However the Russians didn't want Turkoo or the capital to be so close to Sweden. So they
chose Helsinki as the location of their new capital. Um also Turkey was in the centre of the Swedish Kingdom whereas Helsinki was much closer to Saint Petersburg. So at the time Helsinki was a small trading town so they got an architect called Carl Engel to design the new city and many of the buildings we'll see today went up in the 1820s. Now after
Helsinki was made the capital of Finland, Alexander the first decreed in 1814. That 15% the salt import tax was to be collected into a fund for two churches. One of the churches would be for the Orthodox population. Whereas one of the churches would be for the Lutheran population. So what
we're going to start with are the two cathedrals. Uspinski Cathedral, the Orthodox Cathedral and then Helsinki Cathedral, the Lutheran Cathedral. So let's head across and we'll take a look at Uspensky Cathedral first. So
there was an Orthodox Church in Helsinki at the time but it was in desperately in need of heirs. So they decided to upgrade the church and it was funded by private donors. It was designed by the Russian architect Alexi Gonosteev. Apologies for my Russian and it opened in 18sixty8. Seven
hundred 000 bricks were brought in from a discontinued fortress that had been used during the Crimean War. So we will start to see Uspenski Cathedral over to our right hand side. The cathedral as I mentioned opened in 1868 and on the back of the cathedral you will see a plaque commemorating Russian Emperor Alexander the second. It also claims to be the largest Orthodox Church in Western Europe. The church is open to the public so you can visit throughout the week and it is a free church to enter as well. Uh today only less than 1% of
the finished population consider themselves Orthodox. So there you can see Uspensky Cathedral. And now if I look towards the left here you will see a blue building. You'll also see preschoolers out for their daily walk. They all have these fluoro vests that shows the preschool in case they get lost. So today this is the main guard post for the presidential palace. It was designed by CL Angol. We're going to say that
name a lot throughout this tour because he designed a lot of the buildings in Old Helsinki. So here in Finland we have conscription which means that every male citizen aged between 18 and 60 is liable for military service. Women can apply for military service on a voluntary basis. Finland is a time of recording not any military alliances such as NATO. Today this building is used by the the Helsinki Garrison. So now we move on to the presidential palace. This is the big yellow building that we see right here. It is one of
three official residences of the president of the Republic of Finland. At the beginning of the 19th century it was built by a merchant called Johan Henrik Heidenstrou. He was one of the elite of Helsinki's merchants. He purchased a lot
and built his property on it and people were shocked because as you can probably tell it really doesn't look like a home but kind of looks like a palace. It's a lot for a merchant. In 1837 it became a palace when it was purchased to be converted into the residence for the Governor General of Finland. The Russians wanted to become the official residence of the Emperor of Russia. So necessary refurbishing was carried out between 1843 and 1845 and it was directed by you guessed it he was the one who loved near classical architecture in Helsinki. When the building was completed it stood empty for nine years before the first person visited and Prince Nicholas the first youngest son Grand Duke Constantine. The palace was last by a member of the
Imperial Family when Nicholas the second visited for 1 day in 1915. Under the political conditions of World War one the palace was converted into a temporary military hospital. After the February Revolution of 1970 acting of the grand duke the palace ceased to be a military hospital and it became property of the Senate. So after the finished Civil War it was converted into the residence of the Finish throne but of course Finland never got a king. It just became a
residence for the president instead. It seems to be the main resident during the presidency of in the nine who reigned from the 1950s to the 1980s because he didn't like how noisy the road was becoming. So visiting guests do not stay at the palace but important meetings are still held here. Now this what building is used for today. So we're currently at Market Square which is where we're going to finish this tour later today. So this next building is the Supreme Court Building. This is the Supreme Court of Finland. And this building has been here since 1934. It was
originally two separate buildings but they were led together to make use for the Supreme Court. We continue into the old part of Helsinki. I just want to show you Market Square. Um you can see it's well this part's mostly a car park. But this is where we're going to finish the tour. So
we're doing like a little suckle. And then we're going to come back and finish here at Market Square. In the summer if you're visiting in summer especially with a cruise ship you will see lots of market stalls here where you can buy food and souvenirs. Um today it's just a little bit empty
for us. So there you go. This is Market Square where we'll finish in about half an hour and 40 minutes. Now the next building on our list is this big orange building. This is the Swedish Embassy. So this building was built between 1839 and 1843. Now the original building had a Neo Barack facade. Which was
very stylish in Russia at the time which is why you see it everywhere on our buildings from that time period. However when sorry when Finland became an independent country. Uh the Swede Embassy moved into this building and they wanted the building to resemble the Royal Palace in Stockholm. So this building looks just like the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Now here in Finland there are two official languages which are Finish and Swedish. So Swedish is compulsory in all schools and if you want to get a job in the public office whether it be in the city hall or in the library you need to be able to speak both languages fluently. Less than 10% of the population
speaks Swedish on a daily basis. But there are some regions in Finland that only speak Swedish. For example the island of Orland which is between Sweden and Finland but even some areas here in domestic to one of the So here is the school's embassy. Now the blue building that we're going to walk alongside. This building is Helsinki Town Hall. The building was once again designed by Carl Living Engel in the neoclassical style. It dates back to 1833 and it used
to be a hotel until nineteen thirteen. Today it's home to the office of the mayor. And this is where the city council has their meetings. So here we have Helsinki City Hall. It's a beautiful blue building. But no we're going to do is we're going to head across the street. You can see there's a lot of traffic. It's now just after 10 so a lot of people are
heading to work. But it's very busy. If you see three tires backed up often means it's very trafficked. So let's make our way across. We're going to head into Senate Square which is
arguably the most popular place in Old of Helsinki. And down here we'll see the Esplanade which we're going to take on our walk back. And across you can see an old sailing ship. And in the distance is the Old Market Hall. Which is an indoor building where you can try some traditional finished foods. Um for example one thing that's really popular to have here is a Carellian Pie. Which is a Pisceto made up of rye flour. And then they have a creamy rice and egg mixture that they put in the middle. They wrap that around with the rye dough.
They bake them and they taste really really good. So make sure you try Coralian pie. They're best served warm but you can also get cold ones in supermarkets. They taste fine
too. But the warm ones are the best ones. And now we're going to make our way across the streets and we're going to head down that tiny little street that you see right there. The street's called Sofien Katsu. Sofi Gotton and I'll show you when we get up there that all the signs are either in Swedish or sorry all the signs are in Swedish and Finish. If you head across and now we're going to head down. If you come here in summer a lot of these old streets that lead into Senate Square they have beautiful old cobblestone on the ground but unfortunately we can't see that today because it's so snowy but that's where we're going to head in. Show you what's going on while we're waiting. So we're going to make our way into Sukhi and Katsu or Sufigotten. And into Senate Square. So this is where the
first settlement of Helsinki was. And when it was founded in 1552 by the Swedes this is where the first market town was built. The one that was designed to compete with Talon in Estonia. Most of these buildings have been built during the Russian time. Most of these buildings are from the
1820s and 1830s. But when we head into the square we will see one of the oldest buildings in Helsinki. But let me show you an old street sign where you can see just how diverse Finland's history is. You'll see the sign is in at the top Swedish, Sophie Gotham, Sophie Street in Finish, Sophie and Kaptu and then in Russian. So let's keep going.
And in the distance we can see Helsinki Cathedral. Arguably the most famous building in all of Helsinki. Down here you will find lots of different restaurants. There's Italian restaurants. We just passed a micro brewery. So it is a
really fun place to come and eat if you are visiting Helsinki. I would be a little bit wary of restaurants around popular tourist destinations because sometimes they can be way overpriced compared to what you would find a 10 walk away. So just make sure you do your research before coming. I'm going to show you one restaurant coming up on the right hand side. Which does have quite a unique menu. And it is no it for its traditional finished food. But in here you can also find some restaurants that have Russian cuisine. And
this one that I'm going to show you also has some Russian food. So let's go and take a little look. And I will talk about the church I promise look all the kids playing on the snow Alright so now we're going to turn red. And here we'll see a very traditional finished restaurant. Which is called Sambotta. So here is Savotto Restaurant. And if you look on the menu you
will notice there is something that stands out quite a bit. Uh if you look on the right hand side it's all in English. You can see it as a place where you can taste bear. Bear is typically on the menu in Russian restaurants but they serve a tidbit of bear. If you don't want to order a huge plate which could cost maybe 50 plus euros. You can just get a
tiny piece for 15 euros. One in this part of the world. Why not try some bear? Right? I've never tried it. It's a little bit too out there for my liking. So this is Senate Square the oldest part of Central Helsinki. Um in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this was a graveyard and there was an old church up on the site where Helsinki Cathedral is today. However this square was laid out as the main square in the city in eighteen twelve. After Finland
became part of Russia. They wanted this to become the main square of the new capital of Finland. So many of the old buildings were torn down to make way for these very beautiful neoclassical nearby rock style buildings. There is one building here that they think gates back to the Swedish time. And it is the little blue building that you'll see on the corner just after this big yellow building. They believe this is a Swedish merchant's house. This one right here. Uh
today this is the Helsinki City Museum and it's a free museum that shows what life was like in Helsinki in the past. So let's stand in the middle of Senate Square and then we'll talk about some of the buildings. So this building here is the Government Palace. This is the executive building
of the Council of State of Finland. It is also the Prime Minister's Office and it has departments for the Ministry of Finance. And the Senate moved into this building in 18 2-2. Now if I pan this way you will see a huge statue of Alexander the second who was the Russian emperor here. So his statue is in the square. Um I should say that the fins were not always
big fans of the Russians. They were repressed quite a during a period called russification in which they tried to eliminate finish culture and language to make the fins come more under Russian rule but Alexander the second he was very beloved because he really loved Finish culture and language and he passed several reforms to make Finland more autonomous from Russia so he's on a pedestal surrounded by figures representing law culture and peasants so during his reign he introduced several reforms to increase Finland's autonomy including introducing Finland's own currency. The liberation of businesses led to foreign investment and industrial development and under Alexander the second Finland got its first railways and Finish went from being a peasant language to a national language. This also opened up a of opportunities for the greater finished society. He is often
regarded as the Goodsar of Finland. He also did it because Russia didn't like Sweden and also way of pulling the fins closer to Russia. So he he had his own reasons but you know in the end he was one of the good ones. During the rustification of Finland from 1899 onwards the statue became a symbol of quiet resistance with people protesting against decrees of Nicholas the second by leaving flowers at the foot of this statue. After Finland's independence in 1917 demands were made to remove the statue and it was suggested to it with a statue of Carl Gustaf Manaheim. However today it represents Finland's close relationship with Imperial Russia. I love these lamp posts. Hopefully you've been
admiring them while I stood here and showed you Alexander the second. It's just beautiful. So now we'll go and take a look at Helsinki Cathedral. So here is Helsinki Cathedral and remember I said at the start when Finland became part of Russia they wanted two cathedrals for the population. One Russian Orthodox Cathedral and one Lutheran Cathedral. So this is the Lutheran Cathedral. So there used to be a smaller church on this site called the Ulrica Eleanor Church which had been dedicated to Ulrika Eleanor the Queen of Sweden. However the church was
demolished to make way for Helsinki Cathedral. Work began in 1832 and the church was completed in 1850. It has that classic classical design done by Carl Ludvi Engel.
Unfortunately he didn't get see this church finished. Uh the plan is a Greek cross and it is symmetrical in each of the four cardinal directions. The church takes inspiration from Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. The two exterior buildings that you'll see here are bell towers. So today in Finland about 67% of the population are Lutheran. Now this last
building that we'll see is part of the university. Now Senate Square has been trying to get on the Unesco World Heritage List in recent years. Um however they can't because of one building. And you can probably see it's this building right here. So this is a bank building and because it doesn't fit in with the style that you see the rest of Senate Square has. Uh UNESCO is not accepting Senate Square on the UNESCO
World Heritage List. But this is Senate Square this is where you'll spend a lot of your time because this is of course the main part of Finland. Um a lot of people come here in the summer. There's often two of uses park all around Senate Square. We're quite lucky we get it more or less to ourselves. It's a good thing about coming in winter. So what we're going to do now is we're going to head past some of the most fashionable stores in Helsinki. And I'm going to take
you towards the Manaheim Boulevard where we'll see some of Helsinki's most famous modern architecture. We'll then come back down the Manaheim Street on the other side and we will then make our way down the Esplanade. So let's continue our little walk through beautiful Helsinki in Finland.
Going to head this way. So we're now going to be making our way. I'm going to read the street name and show you the street signs. So you can mark it on a map for your own trip. We're heading down Alexander Dalton. The Alexander Street. So just think of the statue. Emperor Alexander the second. It's named after Campbell. Now
before I start to talk a little bit about this street I will just turn back around. You can see one of the trams coming past. Classic Helsinki tram. And we'll have one more look at Set It Square. There you go. So you will notice as we begin to walk down this street that it is heated. You will see that there is no snow on the pathways and that's because some streets here in Helsinki are heated. And to heat the streets they use electrical
cables underneath. So this is where you'll find a lot of shops, a lot of department stores who are passing that big bank building that's preventing Senate Square from being on the Unesco list. And then you'll also start to see that they have some beautiful lights up here. Um because in winter it's
often very dark. And very cold and that can lead to things like winter depression. So what they've done is they've put lights all around the city. Just to liven it up and make it feel like there's people here. Even during the dark period. This is where you'll find a lot of shops and a lot of businesses. But if we head towards the end here we'll start to see some finished design stalks that are quite famous. And we'll also begin to see Manaheim Street which is
one of the most famous boulevards here in LCQ. So we're now making our way to one of the most famous buildings in the whole city where we'll start to see a lot of the influence. Because a lot of Helsinki was built up in the 1920s. You can see it's not a very historical city centre compared to other places for example Copenhagen or even Stockholm. Um but what it this area is famous for is its 1920s architecture. And in this area you will see some of the
influence. But if you do head to other areas south of the city centre you will also see some of the most famous apartments in the whole city. We're coming up to a building that's going to be on our left and it is often considered to be one of the best examples that aren't even quite potentially. I don't know if you'll see they're doing some
filming here. Hey Dylan. Maybe they're doing a live tour as well. Although their equipment looks much bigger than mine. So we'll just make our way down. But I just wanted to point out that down here first we are going to see a cafe. Just watch out for this truck. But there's
a very famous cafe down here called the Carl Faser Cafe. So Carl Faser is a really popular type of chocolate. It is a finished brand. And if you want to any supermarket that you go into in the chocolate section it will have Carl Faser chocolate. He's quite well known. But this is their flagship cafe. And in here they sell sweets and treats and coffee and meals. So there is the cafe. It's it's a beautiful
building. So here it is if you want to try some coffee or some chocolates make sure you go to the Carl Faser Cafe. But we were going to head towards this beautiful Art in Bur Mountain that I wish to show you.
And you can see it's snowing just a little bit. So we're going to make our way left here. We're still on Alexander Street. There's a big apartment stall here on the left called Comp. You find sort of high end
finished brands. We will see a couple examples in a little bit. But this is the Camp Galleria up to my left hand side. And here they have very popular Scandinavian rides like as well as and other stories. Which is kind of like a slightly up-market rich manner. But here's the camp galleria.
Beautiful shopping centre. But the building I'm going to show you is this building right here. Which is the apologies to all the fins out there watching this. Which is an insurance building. The building is built in Soapstone. You can see it right here. It is built in Soapstone in Red and it's decorated with sculptures of devils, monsters and trolls from the Kalavala which is Finland's national epic. It is
considered to be one of the best examples of the national romantic style in Finish Art Nova. It was built in 1901 and all of the design on this building refers to the Kalavala. So Um the name of the insurance company the Poholla is mentioned in the Kolavalla as being the wild tree. Sort of the centre of the universe. So because of that the insurance company wanted to incorporate elements of the Kolavalah into their design. So there it is.
I'll show you the entrance here as well. It's a beautiful building. Up the top you'll see bears. Very common in finished mythology. There's the name. There's the entrance into the building.
So now we're going to make our way towards the end of the street. We will be heading towards the Manaheim Street which is sort of the main street in Helsinki. Yeah I really recommend checking out the finished colour vala. It's inspired such things as JRR Tolkin's lot of the Rings. Uh the Finish language is also believed to inspired a lot of the languages that you find in Lot of the Rings. So during the 19th century when Finland was part of Russia there was a strong need for independence and a lot of people held up or created this idea of independence by promoting artwork. So the finished language went from being a
repressed peasant language to being a language that would be taken more seriously. A national language. They also created lots of poems and compositions, artworks that highlighted unique finish culture that was independent from Sweden and Russia. So the finished language today is notoriously hard to learn. It is completely different from the other Nordic languages. The other Nordic languages are Germanic languages. So they all kind of relate into each other. Whereas the finish is European language. Um it is much closer to Hungarian. Uh
the Swami indigenous languages do have some similarities. They are sorry it's a language up there. I got the word eventually. It is a language. It does have some similarities to Estonian. Estonian is believed to be more modern version of Finish. Whereas Finish is a lot more
traditional. Um but they also do have similarities to Hungarian and indigenous Sermon languages. Even though the indigenous Sarmian language is a could be considered a its own group altogether. Now in design here we will in inside here we
will see famous Marimeco. Marimecco is arguably one of the most famous finished brands. It is beautiful clothing that dates back to the nineteen sixties. It was one
woman who wanted to create fabrics and in order to get her fabric sold she decided to put together a couple dresses and have a runway show. But the dresses became really popular and from that merry mecho was born. So it's very classic 1960s style. It's got sort of that mid-century modern look to it. And this is one of their
largest stores here. You do find Merry Mecca all over the world today of course. Um but one in Finland. Why not? Right. Here is Stockman's department store. This is one of the oldest and largest department stores in all of Finland. It's a massive massive building. It's been here for over 160 years, which is what it's commemorating this year. It
used to started off as much smaller building. Has grown and grown and grown. In here you'll find many different Finish and international brands. And there's also some cafes and food courts in the building as well. So I highly recommend going and taking a look inside. So there that's what they're saying here. Saying it's been here since eighteen sixty-two.
So this is Stockman's department store. So celebrating 160 years this year. And I'll head across the street so you can see the entrance. But now we're going to begin to walk down the Manorheims. Ice on the ground. Now I should also mention in this area there is a Viking themed cafe. Now the fins weren't really Vikings compared
to like Sweden or Denmark or Norway. Um but of course back then Finland was technically part of Sweden. I'll show you. Viking theatre. If you look here we'll see a Viking theme restaurant. If you want to try what Vikings eat which if you
look at the pictures here it's often very meaty or it's fish based. The Vikings are not very good vegetarians. This is a Viking themed restaurant how authentic it is remains to be seen so there you go Viking Restaurant Carols So yeah just check that out if you're looking for something a little bit more If you don't want your bear or your traditional food why not go biking very meaty dishes. Here is Stockman's department store. The building is of course not from the
18sixties. It has been rebuilt many many times. So what I love about walking around Helsinki is that you always get a mixture of sort of finish and Russian design. And this stature here that sort of commemorates the workers of Helsinki. I think it's a great example of almost sovietesque
style. It's a very interesting structure. But this forms the beginning of the Manaheim Street. Which is what we're going to walk along right now. So the street is named after Carl Gustaf Manaheim. Carl Gustaf Manaheim and it is a fascinating he's a very fascinating person. He's often considered to be one of
Finland's Greek heroes. So the street was named after him after the Winter War. The Winter War took place between Finland and Russia at the outbreak of World War two in November 1939 until March nineteen forty. Now while
Finland officially lost the war many believe it was a victory because throughout World War two and into the Soviet era Finland was able to stay independent So let's just keep us. And the reason Kendall was able to stay independent is largely thanks to Carl Gustaf Monaheim. So the street was named after him because he had paraded along this street during the Finished Civil War. And there is a statue of him a little bit further down. It looks like he will walk across here. We're just going to head a little bit further down and then we'll so as I was saying here down the street during the finished Civil War and after the winter war ended the fins and the Russians could go into another war which became known as the continuation war it wasn't a consistent war rather they would sort of just come and go with different battles throughout the Second World War because of this the fins had to align with Nazi Germany I mean I guess when you're choosing between the Soviets and Nazi Germany they were able to work with Nazi Germany should say that they never agreed with Nazi Germany. They just wanted help against the Soviets and
Nazi Germany was able to provide that. But under Carl Gustaf Manaheim he actually put his foot down to Hitler what he did is he invited Hitler to a meeting. And what he did is he offered Hitler a a cigarette. And Hitler took it. And what this showed to Manaheim is that Hitler was willing to do ever Manaheim wanted because he desperately needed Finland on site. So Manaheim realised he had the upper power and he was able to negotiate with Hitler that all the Jewish population here in Finland would not be deported. So that Manaheim was a really important person here in Finland during the Second World War. And he could find so many books and documentaries
about the winter war So let's keep on heading down. We're going to see another merry macro shop coming up on the left hand side. But we are currently making our way towards the Chapel of Silence. And then after that we will
head towards So you can see the other Mary Macquarie on the left hand side. And then we're going to cut across and head into Oh no sorry we're going to head to the Chapel of Silence. And then we'll make our way to Oodi Library from there. We will take a little peek at Finlandia Hall. And then we'll make our way back down towards the Esplanade. And head to Market
Square. Over to the right hand side here you'll see Helsinki Central Station. So it is quite a modern building comparatively. And this is where you can take trains all over Finland including Tapku Tapkia and you can even take an overnight train all the way to Kempti. And the overnight train. It is called the Sandra Express in Winter. You leave here in the evening at around 630. And then you get to camp
here about 530 in the morning. They have sleepy carriages but it's a really popular way to get to Northern Finland if you don't want to fly. So that's it right down there. You can also take the train to Saint Petersburg from here. It takes about 3 hours. But just keep in mind things like this episode
before. It's not working on my phone like for And shortly straight ahead we're going to see a big wooden structure. And this structure is the chapel of it's just coming up there but I just noticed we're going to pass a Moomen shop. So when in the area you always have to show the Moons. So here we'll show the Moomin's very popular finished cartoon characters. They're little hippos. And they're like a Moom family and they go off on little adventures with all of their friends. So let me just cut
across the snow. Luckily my shoes are waterproof. Here is a shop all about the moons. Bags, posh toys, you name it. The kids outfits are adorable but I will say that. Posters, mugs, Here we go. So this building here is the Chapel of Silence. So because
Helsinki is such a big hustle and bustle city and the fins are so used to peacefulness and nature. The Chapel of Silence is intended to be a place where people can go to just get away from it all. So when you go inside it is completely quiet. And it just gives you a moment of reflection before heading back out into crazy noisy Helsinki. So regular church service is not held in the chapel though there are plans to do it. And it doesn't have a particular religion. It is
designed to sort of be very non-denominational so anybody can go and use the chapel. It was built as part of the World Design Capital Program which Helsinki won in twenty twelve. So regardless of your background, your philosophy, you can come into this chapel for free. And just take a minute of silence before coming back out. Now we'll head into the main square. And I'll show you it from the other side as
well. So this square is Marinka Square and this here would have been a Russian barracks. So this was the site of a Russian barracks and exercise field up until it was destroyed during the finished Civil War in nineteen eighteen. So there's only one building remaining from the original barracks building. And unfortunately we can't see too much of it. Because working on
it. Again that's sort of one of the things of coming here in winter. They typically do all the work then. Um for a while this was the central bus station from 1935 until 2thousand 5. Ah but now the bus station is below us. So the name Narinka. This is the Narinka Square. It refers to the market square that used to be here. This is where finished Jews and finished Russians would sell things like clothing. So that's what the word Norinka refers to. Let me
just show you the Chapel of Silence. It's just there. It's a beautiful building. Um sadly we can't film inside. Otherwise I would take you inside. We keep making our way through. I'm now taking you towards the Amos Rex Art Museum. So in this part of town you'll find lots of different modern art galleries which are really well worth checking out. Finland loves art and design and the
Amos Rex Museum is one such museum that you can go to. So the building was built in 1965. And it's named after a very famous arts patron called Amos Anderson. We're going to see the building coming up. Uh it's housed in the old bus station
that I was just talking about and it specialises in Finish Modern Park. You can see the sign on the side of the building right now. So they also have this square complex. Sadly we can't get in because it's all closed. Due to renovation. Let's see if I can sneak around. But they have all of these glass boxes in the square. And underneath the
glass boxes is where they have the cinema. That's part of the Amos Rex Museum. And as you can see what they're advertising here is the documentary film festival. Uh sadly it's taking place online this year. But in here Let me show you the old bus station. Sadly it's a little boarded up a little empty. But you'll see that the Amos Rex building it has this
beautiful 1960s architecture. It has all of these neon signs. And then you'll see all of these glass boxes. See the circles that are sticking out? Uh so these are above the cinema. So this is the Amos Rex Modern Finished Art Museum. And now we'll keep making our way down the street where we're going to see another modern art museum which is called Chiasma. And then here we'll also see a statue of car this stuff and the man who's given his name to the streets. We'll just cut
across here. Now it looks like Chiasma is also under scaffolding. This is again this seems to be the trend of my tours in the Nordics for Free Tours by Foot. Everything is either in scaffolding or it's closed down. Why I'm coming here because I normally bring groups here in the summer and since I haven't been here for two years due to the pandemic. I just wanted to come and check that everything was still here.
And what I'm realising is that everything is still here but it's all covered. We can't see any of it. So let me turn around and here you'll get a lovely view of the Amos Rex Museum which we can luckily see. It's just behind this huge pile of snow. Sokos there is a hotel. But here's the aimless for this building. Just here. It's got some really cool neon signs. It says bio. We're going to run across the street. And as we do we will see the statue of the South Manaheim.
And then the building behind it is the Chiasma Art Museum. So Chiasma it's French from it's finished for the word Chiasma and that refers to a part of the eye where the optic nerve curves in the brain. So we're going to cross oh we'll stay on this side of the street actually. We'll stay on this side of the street. Cuz here you can get a better view. So
the building was designed by an American called Stephen Hall. Uh when they wanted a new art museum they held a architectural competition around the wild. It was mostly for Nordic and Baltic countries but they allowed for six participants from non-nautic countries to participate and Stephen Hall was one of them. So he won. Um the building was very controversial when it opened because it's so close to the Manaheim statue which is very beloved here. Uh today
includes collections by over eight out thousand artists from all over the world. And we'll put a little picture up on the screen so you can see what it looks like in normal times. But it is a very modern design. It's a beautiful building. Unfortunately we can't see any of it. So now we'll keep on making our way straight.
And coming up on the right hand side we're going to see the Erdie Library. It's a great beautiful new building. I love this library. You can go inside for free and I really recommend spending some time there. On the lower floor they have a cafe. And then on the upper on the middle floor sorry they have the coolest things. They have 3D printers. They have recording studios. They have gaming rooms. They have cinema.
They have other leisure activities. And then on the top floor as well because the books are better go somewhere it's a library so the building began in 2015 and it's only open quite recently the name O O D I is chosen because it's easy to remember and translate they don't want to name it after a person was approved by the city council in 2015 and it is has been the library ever since so there it is that's the library we're just waiting for the lights to change and then we'll head across the street. And I love this building. Yeah this is Chiasma right here. All under construction. So the building that we see straight ahead over to my left hand side. This is the finished parliament. Now the building was built between 1926 and 1931. And here it has very
classical architecture. Let me just get across. Cars are waiting for me. So here we go. So the exterior is granite that's taken from a local region. The Calvola region. And here it has the Corinthian columns that are supposed to represent power and strength. So how does parliament work in
Finland. The original the constitution came into effect in nineteen 19. And there were no major changes in the constitution until the year two thousand. Elections take place
in March every 4 years. And women are strongly represented in the Finished Parliament. Here in Finland they did have a monarchy but they do have a president and a Prime Minister. The President focuses on more international relations.
Whereas the Prime Minister focuses more on domestic relations. So here foreign policy is led by the parliament and the duties of Finland are also here as well. Fins are typically very active voters but younger fins are less interested. Voting is not compulsory here in Finland. So here is the finished parliament building. You'll see Oodi
Library over to the right hand side The building next to it is the music centre. So this here is the music centre. It opened in 2 0 11 and it's home to the Civilious Academy. There are also two symphony orchestras. The Finished Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Uh in total the building sits around 1700 So here is the music centre. You can also go and take a look
inside the main foyer if you wish. It's possible to walk through the centre of the building. Now here we're going to see a little orange building hiding behind the trees. This is a historic villa from eighteen forty-three. It was the summer residence for one of Helsinki's doverners. It's built in a neoclassical style which we saw a lot of at Senate Square. Originally when this building was built it was a summer home. So this would have been the countryside.
However over the years of course it has become quite incorporated into the city centre. So today the building is owned by the Helsinki City Museum. It's one of their exterior buildings if you want to get away from Main Museum which is in Senate Square. Um as far as I know it's not open regularly to the public. So that's what that palace is that you see right there. Now all behind the all behind these
buildings that we're passing on the right hand side is still the Baltic Sea. So the Baltic Sea comes really far up through the city and you're always surrounded by the sea. We can't see a lot of the water today because it is all frozen over.
Very typical for winter. But I remember when I came here in twenty twenty. The last time I came here before the pandemic. Um my guide was telling me that it was one of the mildest winters in history. And there was no snow in Finland which is crazy to think about. No snow in Finland. As you can see it's
very common for there to be snow here in winter. This is a much more normal winter. But the fact it's only negative 10 degrees Celsius. I think it's quite a mild winter compared to
what they might be used to. Now this building that we're seeing to the left. This is the National Museum of Finland. So the building opened in 1916 and it illustrates history. It's
built in the finished national romantic style which we saw on that insurance building. And it was built for the museum. So the museum opened in 1916 and as you can imagine it traces the entire history of Finland. It has a lot of archaeological finds. It has paintings. It has images that sort of paint a picture of the history of the city. So here is the National Museum of Finland. It does come look like a church but I promise it's not a church. Now the last building that we're
going to see before we turn around and head back to the escalate is the building over there on the road. So this building is called Finlandia Wall. It was completed in 1971. It is one of the main works by a finished architect called Alva Alto. Very famous finish architect. We will cross the street right here. Had a massive career that ran parallel to the industrialisation of Finland.
And his work really reflects the changes in finish architecture. Thanks to industrialisation. His work starts out as very classical. And then towards the 1960s it became very modern.
Just get some trims to go and then I'll keep on talking. Yeah, I gotta take pictures. You're not your mom. So we'll continue across the street. As I was saying Alva Alto is one of Finley's most important architects and designers and his work spans from the 1920s until the 1960s. Um his 1960s architecture is possibly more famous. Uh he did design a lot of famous glasswares that are used by Arabia. And he also designed a lot of chairs that
are quite famous as well. So His works are typically found in Finland. You rarely see Alva Alto buildings outside of Finland. Um but one of the buildings that's run by the New York University. Uh one of yeah one of the no apologies. Let me do that again. One of the international schools in New
York is in one of his buildings. And one of the dormitories in Boston is done by Alva Alto. So let's keep on going. It's believed that he designed over 500 buildings throughout his lifetime but only 300 of them were built. You can also find some of his buildings in France, Germany, Italy and of course the United States. His work with wood influenced a lot of different Nordic architects. So Finlandia
Hall is considered one of his best and most famous works. The building was completed in 1971 and he designed every single element of the building. The lights, the chairs, the walls, the doors, every single thing was thought of by Alto. His idea was that he wanted to have a high empty space to provide better acoustics. He used Italian Carrara marble for both
the indoor and outdoor surfaces to contrast to get into the black granite. So here there are influence of Mediterranean culture. Um the main venue is used for meetings, congress, theatre, performances, everything. So this is
Finlandia Hall. So what we're going to do now is we're going to make our way back to the Esplanade. So I'm not going to talk on the way back. We'll sort of speed it up a little bit. Um you can take a little break here. You can go to the National Museum. There's a coffee shop if you don't want to go into the museum. And then when you're ready we take a
break. We head all the way back down to the Esplanade and then we'll take a do us some window shopping. Talk about the history of the Esplanade. What you can do in the Esplanade. And then we'll finish back at Market Square which is where we began. So let's speed this up and make our way back to the Esplanade. And here we are back at Stockman's department store which is the oldest apartment store in Helsinki. Celebrating
160 years this year. What we're going to do now is we're going to make our way to the Swedish Theatre. Which will be a beautiful white building. And then after this we're going to make our way down the Esplanades. The most fashionable street in all of Helsinki. We'll do a little window shopping. And when you come here yourself you'll be
able to do some real shopping. Brands like or great place to go to do some shopping. Helsinki is a great city. I know it's an old city like many other Nordic cities. But Helsinki is just such a cool and I think you can have a lot of fun here if you really embrace Helsinki for what it's known for. So we're going to make our way up to the Swedish Theatre which is this white belt I think we can now start to see to the left hand side. So because Swedish was always the language of the upper class. Uh Swedish was typically the language
performed in theaters. Remember Finish was a pleasant language until the mid 19th century. So this was the first national stage in Finland. It was completed in 1827. However the building quickly became too small. So they had to rebuild a new theatre in eighteen sixty. It was destroyed by fire in 1863 but it was completed in 1866 yet again. It was
originally called the new theatre when it was completed. However when a finished language theatre opened they changed the name to the Swedish Theatre. And look here you can see some of the older parts of Stockton compartment store. Yes
this became known as the Swedish Theatre in 18eighty-seven. At the beginning of the 20th century most of the directors were Swedish and many of the actors came from Sweden. Uh Yen Cebilius a very famous finished composer had a lot of his debuts in this building. Uh today I can see the languages used on the ads are finished. Um but a lot of the performances are still in Swedish today. So there is the Swedish Theatre. And now here we are on the Esplanade but before we start to talk about the Esplanade I just want to show you the academic bookstore. It's this building that you see right here. Again
covered with scaffolding as this tradition for these walking tours this building is the academic bookstore and this building was also designed by Alva Alto that very famous Finish Architect. It was completed in 1969 and it's mainly home to the academic bookstore. And if you love books if you just bookstores highly highly commend going inside this building. It is beautiful inside. I know the scaffolding is sort of distracts from that but it is just amazing. I love this bookstore. If we can get a little sneak peek I will show you through the door. Here's
the Swedish Theatre. There's also some really beautiful cafes in the Swedish Theatre. I think we can go and have a little peek. There's a cafe in the bookstore. It's called Cafe Alto. After Alva Alto. Just a little sneak peek. We won't go
all the way in. Go this way. I Nice little sneak peek at the academic bookstore. Should you make your way in as you can see it's just beautiful. I might
have to go back here later today. And look Marimaco is so common place here. You can even get it in a bookstore. Stationary. Little notepads. Whoops. Notepads, notebooks,
folders, etcetera. Okay let's go. So the Esplanade is one of the oldest main boulevards here in Helsinki. And it has a beautiful park in the middle where you can see lots of sculptures. In the summer this is a beautiful place to come. But the trees are very green. They have fountains here but as you can see it's a little bit quiet for us today. So the park
was designed by you guessed it. It was designed in 1880 and was known as by the locals. They have rose bushes here. They have crab apple trees. And they have lots of fins. This is So here is the Esplanade. This is also one of Helsinki's most
fashionable streets. So this is where you'll see a lot of high-end shops which we're going to see as we make our way down to Market Square. You can of course see the moons here. The woolly shops, souvenir shops, beautiful little bakeries. Yeah Louis Vuitton over to the left hand side. Anything to the right hand side if you kept looking along the streets to the right. You would end up at the Finished Design Museum as
well as the Finished Architecture Museum. They're great museums if you are interested in a history of finished design here. Or you can go and learn a little bit about Seoul history. They have sections on Alber Alto, Itala,
Marimeco. So I really recommend. Speaking of Marimeco. See it's everywhere in Helsinki. It's everywhere you go. Here it is once again. Beautiful shop fun. So we're now coming up to the Cump Hotel which is this beautiful building here on the left. Firstly the restaurant that you'll see here on the left Strimberg. This is a very old
and traditional restaurant and cafe. It is named after Algust Strimberg. The very famous Swedish author. Let's have a look at Hotel Cup. So this building you can see it's a beautiful building. Always look up here on the Esplanade. It
was built in 1887 and at the turn of the century. It was Holsinki's sort of entertainment centre. Sadly the building was demolished in the 19sixties but part of the facade was built as a replica for the old a replica of the old building from the eighteen sixties. It is now a hotel as well as a shopping mall and it is considered to be a five star hotel. It is a luxury hotel. It has the most expensive hotel room all of Helsinki which is the Manaheim Suite. I looked it up. It costs four thousand four hundred euros a day to stay at
the Manaheim suite who is hotel camp. I will not be staying there. Maybe you will when you visit. That's up to you. There's hotel camp. Or they have a nice little restaurant
as well. Let's continue. So we're shortly going to see some of the famous glassware shops coming up. So there's Arabia. And then we'll also see Italy. Two very famous designer stores. Here is more of the escalade. You can see all of this on my left hand side. It's luxury
designer shops. Beautiful buildings. Most of these buildings will be from the 1920s. Some will be from the late 1800s but not too many. You can see the Canadian Embassy straight ahead. The
Canadian flag is right here. And now we're coming up to the beautiful Arabia shop. And I'd really recommend going in the shop. I will not go in size because I will likely knock something over with my bag. Um but here is the Esplanade. An
old photo. I love it when shops have old photos of what the area used to look like. Okay. So Italy and Abria, Arabia. Uh the building itself is from 18 thirty-seven. Luckily they kept
the building. And the glass works they were found in the easy beauties Um most of the glassware is now made overseas. Mostly in China but the glassware is still designed in Finland. And yeah Arabia does a lot of glassware that has the
moons on it if you're a fan of the moons. So here is the Arabia building. Beautiful glassware. Even does some they sometimes collaborate. No they don't. Scratch that. So it has beautiful glassware with the mimens that you can see advertised outside. And yet Arabia was founded in eighteen seventy-three. And then the next building will be the Itala building. Itala
was founded in eighteen eighty-eight. And it is known also for having some of Alva Alte's products inside. So you can see inside there are these beautiful vases. Alva Alto he did a savoy vase. And then another famous work done by Itala is oyva Tweakers. Birds by Twinker. Little glass bird
statues. But yeah they're just glassware. Um they do also do the tax free as well if you do want to buy take a part with you. So there we go. And now we're coming down towards the end. We're going to finish just across the street from Market
Square. We're going to be finishing outside the Capelli restaurant. Which opened in 1867 as a place for pastries and lemonade. However quickly became the city's number one venue. Sadly at time of visiting it is closed. They're reopening. They're just renovating the inside of the building. But there is Capelli. Now one building I would really
recommend going into is this building right here. So this building is called Robert's Coffee. It's a very popular finished coffee chain. Kind of like Finland's answer to Starbucks. But the interior of this building has the original Art Neve interior. So this was the home of a Russian merchant
but it was transformed into a bank in eighteen ninety-six. Uh the city bought the building in 1961. And the interior was set to be demolished. Uh but luckily some parts of it were left. So they were able to keep it and now it is a coffee shop. So we'll just go take a little look inside.
I won't go too far in. So here it is. And we'll go and finish but I hope you've enjoyed this tour of Helsinki. We saw Senate Square. We saw Uspensky and
Helsinki Cathedrals. We then made our way past Stockman's department store heading towards Manaheim Street where we saw famous buildings such as the National Museum of Finland, Finlandia Hall, Udi Library and now we made our way back down the Esplanade where we are finishing here outside Robert's Cafe and Capelli Restaurant, one of the most famous restaurants in all of Helsinki. Just to my left hand side we can see Market Square which is where you then can go and get some lunch. But I hope you've enjoyed this tour of Helsinki
and maybe when you come here yourself you'll now have some ideas for where you can walk on your own. I also hope this tour has shown you that Helsinki is a very walkable city. It's very easy to walk from one end to the other as I have displayed. But thank you so much visit for visiting. Uh be sure to check out my other tours on Free Tours By Foot where I go to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Thailand and Bargain. And I hope to see one day here in this part of the world. Thank you so much
for visiting.
2022-03-15 14:48
