March 17: visiting Helsinki

Helsinki (or Helsingfors in Swedish) is the capital and largest city of Finland. It has about 600.000 inhabitants (which is comparable with e.g. Antwerp in Belgium).
It was founded by the Swedish king Gustav I in 1550. King Gustav I wanted to have a competitor to Reval (now Tallinn), a nearby Hanseatic League city which dominated local trade at the time. Later Sweden took over Reval, so they lost their interest in Helsingfors.

A map of the Hanseatic League in the 15th century. (source: Wikipedia) 

Russian money and the talent of the German architect Carl Ludwig Engel were used to build several government buildings and a cathedral. From 1850 most wooden worker houses were replaced by stone houses. In 1900 the city looked totally different. In half a century, it transformed from a small harbor to a real capital.

Four huge statues stand guard at the entrance of the railway station.

The central railway station (Rautatieasema) is the most central location of the city. It's a striking building of rose granite with a 48 meter high green bell tower. From there, it is only a few hundred meters to Kiasma, the museum of contemporary art. There was an impressive exhibitions of the work of Jouko Lehtola (a Finnish photographer) and the Romanian visual artist Dan Perjovschi.
From there I walked through the Esplanadi, the shopping street with a nice park in the middle. At the end of Esplanadi, I had a nice view on the cathedral.

Helsinki cathedral was originally built from 1830-1852 as a tribute to
the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

On the square in front of the cathedral, you can see the statue of Tsar Alexander II. At his feet there are four sculptures that tell the story of this square: Lex (Law) looks towards the government building, Lux (Light) looks to the Sun, Labor looks at the university and Pax (Peace) looks at the cathedral.

Then I took the tram to Sibelius park. This park contains the Sibelius monument, which is dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957).

Sibelius monument in the snow.

Another touristic attraction of the city is the Temppeliaukio Church, also known as the Church of the Rock. The interior is excavated and built directly out of solid rock and is bathed in natural light which enters through the glazed dome. The church is used frequently as a concert venue due to its excellent acoustics. The acoustic quality is created by the rough, virtually unworked rock surfaces.

Temppeliaukio Church was built in 1968-'69.