Reports like this are worth what they are worth. Helsinki is the gateway to the country considered, from 2016 to 2023, the “Happiest in the World”.
The city's weather, to begin with, and then the sobriety of the Helsinki residents, generate strong suspicion in any visitor from southern Europe or the tropics. Having arrived from the top of Finland to finally dedicate a few days to the capital, we began to feel indignant about the time.
Em Inari, Oulu, Saariselka and Kuusamo, we had been hit between -12 and -34º, well supported, even pleasant, under the different layers of clothing and the caress of an Arctic or sub-Arctic sun that insisted on stimulating us.
Helsinki's Always Whimsical Climate
Arriving in Helsinki, they are 0º, or a little less. Leftover snow covers portions of the darkest streets, the banks of lakes and part of the panoply of creative and sophisticated monuments that adorn the city. We face a windy and gray atmosphere, dotted with snow that is already falling to the ground in water.
The local people, little given to squandering, adept at elegant humility, shelter in dark clothes.
As is typical of cities that face the sea, the weather changes quickly. A day and a half later, the sun reacts to the affront. From then on, from half past ten, eleven in the morning, it breaks out. Reveal the true colors of Stadi, still without generating laughter or gratuitous smiles from passersby.
Each people has their own way of living. In what is the northernmost capital of the European Union, as in others of similar latitude, the inclement climate has made moments when happiness, euphoria and interaction overcome sobriety rarer.
A Lutheran, Orthodox and Other Faith Capital
And yet, in the sun, the pastel tones shine. The white, green dome and gold touches of the Lutheran Cathedral – the city's iconic building – shine above the rooftop line.
It is challenged by the rival cathedral, the orthodox Uspenski cathedral, made of bricks, comparable to the Muscovite Saint Basil's, if we remove its almost Disney, fancy decorations.
It was the Russian Emperor Alexander I who decreed, in 1814, a tax on the import of salt, intended to subsidize two temples, one Orthodox and one Lutheran.
Between the two, we passed by the Presidential Palace. A lone, elegant soldier resists the sacrifice, in front of the den, snuggled under an arctic fur cap and a windproof trench coat.
We stopped to photograph him and his suffering dignity.
Spartan, the soldier hardly blinks.
We continue towards another famous Lutheran cathedral, Temppeliaukio, from 1969, and much more recent than its counterparts.
Temppeliaukio shows us revolutionary architecture.
Instead of above, it is underground, with walls of rock and rubble, the altar installed in a glacial crevice from the ice age.
Its acoustics have proven themselves in such a special way that it hosts frequent concerts and recitals.
Seen from above, it looks like an encrusted limpet.
The Grand and Emblematic Railway Station
The third structure that we detected elevated in relation to the roofs is the tower of the Central Railway Station.
At a time when Finland remained a Grand Duchy subordinate to the Russian Empire, Emperor Alexander II complained that the city urgently needed its Helsingin Päärautatieasema.
The tsar lamented that the territory lacked connections between the interior full of rivers and lakes and the coast of the Baltic Sea.
The place where the station is located was, to begin with, a seabed.
Carl Albert Edelfelt, a Swedish architect, was tasked with several distinct projects for the station. Authorities disapproved of a wooden building, which was less expensive but highly combustible.
They validated one of their expensive projects, with three floors and a neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance style facade, said to be inspired by the Russian Petergof station.
Above all in the twilight, the granite duo of the Lantern Bearers stands out in front of you.
They are guardians of a mysterious and secular radiance that seduces passers-by, it is said that with a haircut suggested by members of a Finnish Lutheran religious movement.
The “Awakening” originated in two central and eastern provinces. Later, he joined Finnish Lutheranism, considered current.
In the century just past, guardians validated the arrival of hundreds of thousands of junantuomat, translatable as “brought by train”, those born in the immense countryside of the Country of a Thousand Lakes, who migrated to the capital.
Lapps, Samis, Karelians, all those people who increased Helsinki's population from 190.000 at the beginning of the 680.000th century to the current almost XNUMX inhabitants.
Capital and only Metropolis of Finland
This number and the confluence of ethnicities and languages, reinforced by the thousands of expatriates attracted by the unsurpassed quality of life, made Helsinki the only Suómi metropolis.
The continuous increase in Helsinkiers never represented a squeeze. On average, there are just over three thousand people per month.2 of the city. In Lisbon, there are almost 5.500 per m2.
Baltic city full of islands
The more we travel, the more we see how the abundance of parks, forests and plant life in other forms offsets the worst of the weather.
But there is more. Helsinki is also surrounded by a 130km coastline, with hundreds of offshore islands and islets dotting the Baltic.
They hide disparate and surprising domains, some served by public ferries and tour companies, the rest within the reach of boat owners.
For different reasons, we visited two of the most important, Suomenlinna and Seurasaari, located at opposite ends of the urban area.
We traveled to the still freezing Seuraasari. In times of eastern and Easter, there we followed a pagan celebration.
The Inevitable Swedish and Russian Influence
Em Suomenlinna, we explored the fortress built by Sweden, during the period in which Finland was under its yoke, with the aim of containing the likely expansion of the Russian Empire, an expansion that, as we have already noted, came to pass.
The ferry to Suomenlinna departs from the Market, Helsinki's star market, a place where traditional Suómi food and drink, as well as crafts, come together.
The ferry route allows us to admire the historical and architectural front of Helsinki: its South Harbor.
Completing it are the docks lined up in front of some of the oldest and most resplendent buildings in the city, buildings that, as the ship moves away, we see returning protagonism to the Lutheran Cathedral above.
Around the Olympia cruise terminal, we see it so prominently that we notice the verdigris bronze statue in honor of Emperor Alexander II, “The Liberator”, his head, a favorite landing spot for seagulls.
Having been under the Russian and Swedish yoke for so many years, neighboring these former empires, Helsinki suffered obvious architectural and urban influences from Stockholm and, even more so, from Saint Petersburg, the Russian Window to Europe.
Helsinki lacks the expansion and grandeur of Saint Petersburg, of immense squares and palaces such as the Palace Square complex and the Hermitage. And palace replicas of Versailles, such as the Peterhof and Catherine Palaces.
After independence in 1917, authorities focused on erecting buildings honoring Suómi nationalism, aligned with the political-social progressivism resulting from the establishment of the republic.
Long-Inspiring Architecture and Design
Inspired by the austere climate, to urbanize, build, equip and decorate without blemish, the Nordic countries trained some of the best urban planners, architects and decorators in the world.
Especially during the 1950s, but also thereafter, Helsinki benefited from the talent of architects and Finnish designers which, moreover, appeared in pairs and trios:
Alvaar, Aino and Elissa Alto, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Eero Arnio, Lars Sonck and the like, authors of works such as the church of Temppeliaukio, the Oodi library, the Hall of Finland, the Athenaeum, the Glass Palace and the Art Museum Amos Rex, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and many others.
The city's architecture alone would give us something to do for more than a month. And there is also design, which we have already dedicated to in a previous article.
With less time than we wanted, we sacrificed leisure time on terraces and bars.
Instead, we get around, on foot, by bus and aboard the emblematic green-yellow trams.
In search of creative works that distinguish Helsinki from other major Baltic cities:
the musical organ-shaped monument to the composer Jean Sibelius, in Sibelius Park.
Then, the unusual statue of the three blacksmiths, one of the Helsinki locals' favorite meeting points.
More because of the heating system installed under Aleksanterikatu Street that prevents snow and ice, even when it's -10ºC, than because of the company of the hot and naked workers.
European conflicts that left marks
The statue, designed by Felix Nylund, preserves damage caused by bombing during the Continuation War (1941-1944) when, in a complex and threatening context, Finland was forced to ally with Nazi Germany, against the Soviet Union which bombed Nazi positions on the eve of the start of Operation Barbarrossa.
With the turnaround in the conflict and Soviet supremacy, Finland was forced to definitively cede three parts of its territory to the USSR, its “right arm” of Petsamo, the Salla region and Finnish Karelia. Even so, mutilated, the young Suómi nation survived the worst conflict ever.
Helsinki suffered damage from 350 Soviet bombs, around 50 buildings destroyed, 90 fatalities. A measured destruction, if we take into account what devastated much of Europe and the World.
To the happiness of the many outsiders who, like us, discovered it and discovered it again.
