Why go
Founded by Sweden in 1550, Helsinki grew from a small coastal town into Finland’s capital after Russian rule shifted the country’s political centre here. Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustav I of Sweden as Helsingfors, intended to rival…
The full story
Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustav I of Sweden as Helsingfors, intended to rival Tallinn. It remained a small coastal town for much of its early history, and its fortunes changed with the eighteenth-century naval fortress of Sveaborg, now Suomenlinna. The decisive shift came after Russia annexed Finland in 1809. Czar Alexander I moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, and the country’s university followed in 1827. The rebuilt centre took on the neoclassical character still visible today. Helsinki then endured civil conflict in 1918 and wartime bombing during the Second World War, before the 1952 Olympics and later urban growth marked a new phase. This history gives the central architecture and Suomenlinna a clearer context than a simple sightseeing stop.