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| City Guide - Helsinki - City Overview | ||
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City Overview If the shape of Finland resembles a long-skirted woman with her right arm punching the air, then Helsinki is her right foot. Affectionately known as the 'Daughter of the Baltic', Helsinki is sited at the arrowhead of a peninsula, surrounded by an archipelago of 315 islands, perfectly placed between its two great trading cousins, Stockholm and Moscow. The city's population just teeters over half a million, and with its tallest building only 12 storeys high, Helsinki seems almost provincial. However, statistics reveal that the city is one of the fastest growing areas in the European Union. Within the last decade, 100,000 inhabitants have moved into Helsinki and by the year 2030 government statistics predict over 1.3 million people will be living within the region. In a European perspective, Helsinki is relatively young (450 years), yet it is Finland's sixth-oldest town. The Swedes, who extended their empire into Finland in 1155, founded the city of 'Helsingfors' (the name still used by the Swedes) in 1550 when King Gustav Vasa needed a site for a strategic, competitively placed trading port. It languished as a coastal backwater until Imperialist Russia invaded in 1809. The Grand Duchy needed a centre of power and Helsinki was chosen because of its major trump card, the massive sea fortress - now a UNESCO World Heritage Site - of Suomenlinna. Modern Helsinki was born when Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917. The new republic boomed throughout the 1920s and 30s, and the architectural movements of the era - Modernism and Functionalism - were fathered by one of Finland's most famous sons, internationally acclaimed architect Alvar Aalto. Helsinki stepped on to the world stage when the Olympic Stadium was completed in 1938 but the games were postponed due to the war, and were finally held in 1952; it still holds the record as the smallest city in the world to host the Olympic Games. Finland became a member of the European Union in 1995, securing Helsinki's ties with Europe. The city's distinctive 'East meets West' culture is symbolised in the contrast between the cool, clean lines of Finlandia Hall that rubs shoulders with the rich golden onion dome of Uspenski Cathedral. The centre of the city, the Neo-Classical mini St Petersburg built by German-born architect Carl Engel, is easily explored on foot and most of the main sights are within walking distance of the centre. The pace of Helsinki life varies with the seasons. In the summer, when temperatures rise to 19°C (66°F), the whole city comes alive. The bars overflow onto the streets and throughout July and August the Finns revel in 20-hour-long summer days. In winter, temperatures plummet to an average of -3°C (26.5°F), and the city goes underground, becoming a creative hive of productivity. These long, dark nights have led Helsinkiläiset (Helsinkians) to be one of the world's most 'connected' races on the planet; one in ten use the internet daily, compared to about one in 50 in Britain. Perhaps it is the balance between these two climatic extremes that conspires to make Helsinki one of Europe's most creative and technologically progressive capitals. |
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