Explore Helsinki

Kiasma is the contemporary art museum of the Finnish National Gallery, on Mannerheimintie in central Helsinki. Its curved building by the American architect Steven Holl, chosen in a 1993 competition, opened in May 1998. It shows changing exhibitions and works from a collection of some 8,000 artists, and also has a theatre stage, a café and a shop.

Kamppi Chapel, also called the Chapel of Silence, is a wooden chapel on Narinkka Square in central Helsinki, opened in 2012. Designed by K2S Architects, it is 11.5 metres tall, with a curved outer wall of spruce and an interior lined with alder. It holds no Sunday services and is meant for a quiet moment in the busy Kamppi district.

Amos Rex is a contemporary art museum that opened in 2018 in exhibition halls built beneath Lasipalatsi Square on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki. Designed by JKMM Architects, the halls take in daylight through domed skylights rising from the square beside the 1930s functionalist Lasipalatsi building. It is named after the publisher and patron Amos Anderson.

Helsinki Central Library Oodi is a public library on Kansalaistori square opposite Parliament House, opened in December 2018 to designs by ALA Architects. Behind its curved wooden facade, the ground floor holds a cinema and event halls, the second floor studios and a makerspace, and the top floor a book hall with a balcony over Töölönlahti.

Ateneum is an art museum of the Finnish National Gallery on the south side of Railway Square in central Helsinki. Its building by Theodor Höijer, completed in 1887, has a sculpted facade with caryatids and busts. The collection covers Finnish art from 18th-century portraits to the 20th century and some 650 international works, among them a van Gogh.

Finlandia Hall is a concert and congress building on Töölönlahti Bay in Helsinki, designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1971, with a congress wing added in 1975. Its white Carrara marble and black granite exterior hosted the 1975 CSCE summit. A permanent exhibition inside presents the work of Alvar, Aino and Elissa Aalto.

Temppeliaukio Church is a Lutheran parish church in Töölö, designed by the brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. The hall is quarried directly into the granite bedrock, with rough rock walls and a copper-clad dome ringed by skylights; it seats about 750 people and is also used for concerts.

Helsinki Cathedral is the Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, rising above the Senate Square at the top of a broad flight of steps. Designed by Carl Ludvig Engel and consecrated in 1852, it was called St Nicholas' Church until 1917; the white Neoclassical church has a Greek-cross plan, a green central dome and zinc statues of the twelve apostles on the roof.

Senate Square is the central square of Helsinki, laid out after 1812 and framed by Carl Ludvig Engel's neoclassical buildings: Helsinki Cathedral to the north, the Government Palace to the east and the main building of the University of Helsinki to the west. In the middle stands Walter Runeberg's statue of Emperor Alexander II from 1894.

Market Square is a harbourside square at the eastern end of the Esplanadi in Helsinki, beside the Presidential Palace, the City Hall and the South Harbour. From spring to autumn its stalls sell fish, berries, vegetables, snacks and handicrafts, and ferries leave from its quay for Suomenlinna and the nearby islands.

Flying Cinema Tour of Helsinki is a 50-seat motion-simulator cinema on the Katajanokka quay, opened in December 2016 under the name Flytour Helsinki. Its films of about 12 minutes fly over Helsinki's landmarks or through Finnish landscapes, with moving seats and effects such as wind, mist and snow; shows start every 15 minutes.

Uspenski Cathedral is the main cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Finland, built in 1862–1868 on a rocky hill on the Katajanokka peninsula to designs by Aleksey Gornostayev. Its red-brick walls reuse bricks from the Bomarsund fortress on Åland, and green copper domes with gilded cupolas rise above an interior with a painted iconostasis.

SkyWheel Helsinki is a 40-metre Ferris wheel on the Katajanokka quay next to the Market Square, opened in June 2014. Its 30 climate-controlled gondolas run year-round and look out over the South Harbour, the city centre and the islands; one gondola is fitted out as a sauna, another as a VIP cabin with a glass floor.

Linnanmäki is an amusement park on a hill in Alppila, 2.5 km north of central Helsinki, opened in 1950 and run by the Children's Day Foundation, which gives its proceeds to child welfare. It has about 40 rides, including eight roller coasters such as the wooden Vuoristorata from 1951, plus a SEA LIFE aquarium and the Peacock Theatre.

The Hotel and Restaurant Museum covers the history of Finnish hotels, restaurants, cafés and food and drink culture. Founded in 1971 for hospitality students, it has been in the Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas) since 1993; its exhibition Taste Matters shows menus, photographs and objects from restaurants, bars, diners and hotels.

Korkeasaari Zoo covers the island of Korkeasaari east of central Helsinki and first opened in 1889. It keeps about 150 animal species, from brown bears and forest reindeer to snow leopards, lions and kangaroos, and runs a hospital for injured wild animals. Bridges link the island to the mainland and to Mustikkamaa.

The Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, founded in 1909 and run by the National Museum of Finland, fills the eastern and northern parts of Seurasaari island. Its 89 wooden buildings were moved here from across Finland, among them farmsteads, a manor, cottages and the late-17th-century Karuna church, and show rural life of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Suomenlinna Museum occupies building C74 on Susisaari, a mid-18th-century storehouse that also houses the fortress's visitor centre. Its permanent exhibition covers more than 270 years of the fortress, from the fortification works and the dry dock to the daily life of soldiers and residents, and a 25-minute film on its history is shown in the auditorium.

Suomenlinna is a sea fortress spread over six fortified islands off Helsinki, begun in 1748 under the Swedish Crown to a plan by Augustin Ehrensvärd. Stone bastions, tunnels, a dry dock and the King's Gate line the walking route; about 800 people live on the islands, which have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.