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helsinki: general info
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If the shape of Finland resembles a long-skirted woman with her right arm punching the air, then Helsinki is her right foot. Affectionately known as the Daughter of the Baltic, the city is sited at the arrowhead of a peninsula, surrounded by an archipelago of 315 islands, perfectly placed between its two great trading cousins, Stockholm and Moscow.
In a European perspective, Helsinki is relatively young (450 years), yet it is Finlands sixth oldest town. The Swedes, who extended their empire into Finland in 1155, founded the city of Helsingfors (the name still used by the Swedes) in 1550, when King Gustav Vasa needed a site for a strategic and competitively placed trading port. It languished as a coastal backwater until Imperialist Russia invaded in 1809. The Grand Duchy required a new power base and Helsinki was chosen because of its major trump card, the massive sea fortress now a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Suomenlinna.
Modern Helsinki was born when Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917. The new republic boomed throughout the 1920s and 30s, when the architectural movements of the era Modernism and Functionalism were fathered by one of Finlands most famous sons, internationally acclaimed architect Alvar Aalto. Helsinki stepped on to the world stage when the Olympic Stadium was completed in 1938, although the games were postponed due to the war and were finally held there in 1952. It still holds the record as the smallest city in the world to host the Olympic Games.
Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995, securing Helsinkis ties with Europe. The citys distinctive East meets West culture is
symbolized in the contrast between the cool, clean lines of Finlandia Hall that rubs shoulders with the rich golden onion dome of Uspenski Cathedral. The centre of the city, the Neo-Classical mini St Petersburg built by German-born architect Carl Engel, is easily explored on foot and most of the main sights are within walking distance of the centre.
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