Helsinki
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The New Finnish National Opera House in Helsinki, Finland, was opened in 1993. Much Finnish and international opera is performed here.
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Mannerheimintie is the main road leading north from the centre of Helsinki, Finland. The city transport includes trams, running on rails set in the road, and powered from overhead wires.
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The Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, was originally a private residence for German businessmen. It was redesigned in 1843 as a palace for the tsars before conversion to its current use as home to the Finnish president.
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The Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, stands on a granite outcrop. The building was begun in 1830 to a design by the German-born architect Carl Ludwig Engel, and was completed in 1852 in a different style.
Capital and port of Finland; population (2003 est) 582,600, urban agglomeration 1,162,900. Sheltered by islands, the city is a natural seaport and is the commercial, administrative, and intellectual centre of Finland. Industries include shipbuilding, engineering, machinery, food processing, electronics and textiles. It is also the country's main tourist centre, and is linked by ferry with Stockholm, Tallinn, and St Petersburg. The port is kept open by icebreakers in winter.
History
Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, north of its present location. The city was devastated by a great fire in 1808; it was rebuilt as a well-planned, spacious metropol is, which includes the architecture of Alvar Aalto. After Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809, Helsinki became capital of the grand duchy in 1812 and remained the capital after independence in 1917.FeaturesThe city contains the parliament house, an 18th-century cathedral, many buildings by the German-born architect Carl Ludwig Engel of the early 19th century, and many in national Romantic style from around 1900, including the railway station designed by Eliel Saarinen. The homes of the architect Saarinen and the composer Jean Sibelius outside the city are museums. Suomenlinna fortress, 3.2 km/2 mi southeast of the city, is a tourist attraction. The pale colour of the local building material has given Helsinki the name of the ‘white city of Europe’. |
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