Helsinki Churches and History

While taking the public bus allowed us to walk past the line for the shuttle bus, we ended up in another line.

For some reason, it took a long time for passengers to buy tickets or day passes.

I went up the steps with exactly 27.2 Euros, which was the total price for four passes, but the driver nonetheless took time with pen and paper to figure out how much we owed. It might have been his first day on the job, but even then he was obviously a slow learner.




The ride into town wasn't long, and the seats were comfortable.
We arrived at Senate Square, where we snapped some photos next to the granite fountain featuring a nude bronze mermaid called Havis Amanda (Sea Nymph), who rises from the water to symbolize Helsinki's rebirth.

When unveiled in 1908, French sculptor Ville Vallgren's work met with protests, especially from suffragettes who had won the vote and equality for women in Finland in 1906.

They called the statue “a common French whore,” and the artist said the model was a Parisian mademoiselle, putting a thread of truth in the objection to what they claimed to be an objectification of women.

She nonetheless remains prominently on display, looking rather innocent now, as well as beautiful, and she has become the unofficial symbol of Helsinki.


Up a long flight of majestic steps sits the Lutheran Church. Designed by German neoclassical architect Carl Ludwig Engel as the crown jewel of his Senate Square project, it was supposed to have only the center dome.

Engel died twelve years before it was completed in 1852, however, and his successor Ernst Lohrmann thought there was a flaw in the design. 

He claimed the roof might collapse if he didn't counterbalance the center dome with smaller domes on the four corners of the central part of the structure.

Built while Finland was part of Russia, it was originally called St. Nicholas' church, and the inclusion of the smaller domes tied it more closely to the architectural style of Russia in general and St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg in particular.

We arrived shortly after an organ concert had started, so we weren't able to go inside, but looking in the windows told us it was nice but rather unremarkable inside, and we didn't return.


On a hill a short distance from Senate Square is the Russian Orthodox church, Uspenski Cathedral. Its exterior is even more Russian in design than the Lutheran Church.

Completed in 1868 under the design of Russian architect Aleksei Gornostajev, it looks older than that inside, but for me, the exterior was still far more impressive than the interior.



The Russian heritage is obviously important to Helsinki, but they have stronger ties to Sweden.

From the time of the Vikings, Sweden dominated Finland, which was part of Sweden (with an occasional incursion by Russia) from 1323 until 1809, when Sweden ceded Finland to Russia.

Napoleon had sanctioned Russia's invasion of Finland the previous year.


In 1899, Russian was declared the official language of Finland, but as you might guess, that didn't go over well.

We didn't see many Russian words on our visit, but even though only about 10% of the population speaks Swedish, all the street signs are written in Finnish and Swedish.



In 1917, when the Russian Revolution broke out, Finland took control of its own destiny, winning independence.

In 1939, Finland declared neutrality in the war, but the Soviet Union invaded them and took 10% of their land the next year under the Treaty of Moscow.

In 1941, Finland declared war on the Soviet Union, and in response, Britain declared war on Finland, so Finland was the enemy.

While World War II is considered to have ended in 1945, Finland and the Soviet Union didn't sign a treaty until 1947.

Fortunately for Finland, they maintained their independence as a capitalist society, and by the 1970s, they had the highest per capita income in the world.


Between the churches is a bastion of capitalism, the Harbour Market.

It seems like we always end up in these open air marketplaces wherever we go, tasting free samples of local produce, meat and fish, and we bought some huge raspberries that were delicious.





We did not see Temppeliaukio Rock Church, but Gina and Laszlo did as part of their Helsinki Highlights and Cuisine Tour, and they said it was very cool.

Completed in 1969, it is built inside a massive block of granite, and the copper dome makes it look like a space ship crashed into the ground.