"Helsinki - the capital of Fi ..." a Helsinki Travel Page by finlandia

Helsinki (Helsingfors in Swedish) is the northernmost capital on the European continent. It is the capital of the land of the midnight sun!

Helsinki has a coast line of 98 kilometers and there are beautiful 315 islands in Helsinki. Helsinki is called the White Daughter of the Baltic.

There are about 560 000 inhabitants in Helsinki (1.2 million in the metropolitan area). There are 315 islands, 70 museums and 750 restaurants in Helsinki.

Readers of the Guardian and the Observer in Britain voted Helsinki the 5th best city in the whole world in June 2001.

The new market town Helsinki was founded in 1550. It became the capital in 1812. The first Finnish railroad was built from Helsinki to Hameenlinna in 1862. The 15th Olympic Games were held in Helsinki in 1952.

Nowadays the largest shopping center in Scandinavia (named Itakeskus) with 190 shops and 27 restaurants is in Helsinki: only 10 minutes by metro (subway) from the city centre, by car ten kilometers east of downtown along the Itavayla highway.

But Helsinki is not only buildings and shops. There is a lot of clean nature in Helsinki: beautiful islands, nice beaches, green parks etc. In summertime you can almost see the midnight sun and in wintertime you can see trees with a beautiful snow cover...

See also my external Helsinki link page.

Welcome to Helsinki!