1Helsinki Cathedral and Senate Square
The white cathedral with its green domes is the image of Helsinki on every postcard, and it was designed to be exactly that. After Finland passed from Sweden to Russia in 1809 and Helsinki became the capital, the architect Carl Ludvig Engel was asked to give the new capital a monumental centre. He laid out Senate Square as a single composition: the government palace on one side, the university on the other and the church raised above them on a high platform. It was completed in 1852, after Engel's death, and was known as St Nicholas' Church until Finland's independence. The interior comes as a surprise after the facade: bright, plain and almost bare, as Lutheran churches are, with only a few statues and an organ. Most of the pleasure lies outside. Sit on the steps and you look down over the square, the statue of Tsar Alexander II at its centre and the yellow and white Empire buildings around it. In December the square fills with the stalls of the Christmas market.
- Time
- 20 to 40 min
- Setting
- Both
- Best time
- At opening time in the morning, before the tour groups arrive; the steps at sunset
- Getting there
- Metro to Helsingin yliopisto, or a five-minute walk from the Market Square
Tip: Services, concerts and weddings change the opening times from day to day; the cathedral's website lists the hours for the current week.
From 1 June to 1 November admission is €8 from age 18; from 5 November to 31 May the same amount is a voluntary payment at the self-service checkout. Under 18 free. Opens at 9 am, on Sundays at 12 pm.
helsingintuomiokirkko.fi
