Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #11 in Helsinki, Finland
Legend
Guided Free Walking Tours
Book free guided walking tours in Helsinki.
Guided Sightseeing Tours
Book guided sightseeing tours and activities in Helsinki.
Tour Facts
10 km
0 m
Experience Helsinki in Finland in a whole new way with our free self-guided sightseeing tour. This site not only offers you practical information and insider tips, but also a rich variety of activities and sights you shouldn't miss. Whether you love art and culture, want to explore historical sites or simply want to experience the vibrant atmosphere of a lively city - you'll find everything you need for your personal adventure here.
Activities in HelsinkiIndividual Sights in HelsinkiSight 1: Liisanpuistikko
Liisanpuistikko is a small park in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. The park is bounded by Pohjoisranta, Maneesikatu, Maurinkatu and Liisankatu.
Sight 2: Teatteri Jurkka
Theatre Jurkka is a professional theatre on Vironkatu in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. The theatre was founded in 1953 and has operated in its current premises since 1954. There are 51 seats.
Sight 3: Holy Trinity Church
The Holy Trinity Church is a Finnish Orthodox Church located in the Kruununhaka district of Helsinki, on the corner of Unioninkatu and Rauhankatu. The church was built in the neo-classical style in 1826 under the direction of the architect Carl Ludvig Engel, and was dedicated and opened in the following year. The Holy Trinity services the city's orthodox community with Divine Liturgy held in both Church Slavic and Finnish.
Sight 4: Helsinki Cathedral
Helsinki Cathedral is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka in the centre of Helsinki, Finland, at the Senate Square. The church was originally built from 1830 to 1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. It was also known as St Nicholas's Church until Finland declared its full independence in 1917. It is a major landmark of the city, and one of the most famous historical structures in Finland as a whole when viewed globally.
Sight 5: Helsinki University Museum Flame
Science Museum Liekki is a museum maintained by the University of Helsinki and located on the first floor of the university's main building. The observatory building on Tähtitorninvuori, which has been converted into a public centre, is also part of the Liekki Science Museum, as is Porthania's drawing room.
Sight 6: Kluuvinlahti Fossils
Kluuvinlahti fossils is a work of art by Tuula Närhinen completed in 2003 on Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki. The work features recessed 8.5-centimetre-wide copper strips running across the sidewalks. They bear the Latin names of plants and animals on the grassy seashore.
Wikipedia: Kluuvinlahden fossiilit (taideteos) (FI), Website
Sight 7: Ateneum
Ateneum is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland and one of the three museums forming the Finnish National Gallery. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of Rautatientori square close to Helsinki Central railway station. It has the biggest collections of classical art in Finland. Before 1991 the Ateneum building also housed the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and University of Art and Design Helsinki.
Sight 8: Network
Get Ticket*Verkko is a spatial installation by Annikki Luukela at the University of Helsinki metro station in Helsinki. The work starts in the glass cabinet on the upper platform of the station and continues to the platform level along the wall of the escalator. In addition, it includes neon and holographic works in quay-level display cases. The network is made of a colored neon light tube, which has been used for a total of more than a hundred meters. The work was completed in 1995, when the station was opened under the name Kaisaniemi metro station.
Sight 9: Varsapuistikko
Varsapuistikko is located in Helsinki, in a triangle between Kaisaniemenkatu, Yrjö-Koskisen katu and Unioninkatu, near the Forest House. It was once part of Kaisaniemi Park, but was separated from it when Kaisaniemenkatu was built through the park. The park takes its name from Emil Cedercreutz's sculpture Mother's Love, completed in 1928, which depicts a horse foal and its dam.
Sight 10: Kaisaniemi Botanical Garden
Kaisaniemi Botanical Garden is located in the Kluuvi district of Helsinki, in an area called Kaisaniemi. Along with the Kumpula Botanical Garden, it is one of the two botanical gardens of the University of Helsinki. In addition to the Botanical Museum, both gardens belong to the Botany Unit of the Finnish Museum of Natural History, headed by Docent Marko-Tapio Hyvärinen. Botanical gardens maintain a scientific collection of living plants for research and educational purposes.
Wikipedia: Kaisaniemen kasvitieteellinen puutarha (FI), Website
Sight 11: Kaisaniemi Park
Kaisaniemi park is a popular park, in the center of Helsinki, in the region of Kluuvi. The Kaisaniemi Park was named after Catharina "Cajsa" Wahllund. Part of the park was given to the University of Helsinki in 1829, for gardening. The oldest greenhouse was opened in 1889.
Sight 12: The Curtain (Memorial to Ida Aalberg)
The Curtain or Ida Aalberg Memorial is a bronze sculpture by Raimo Utriainen dedicated to actress Ida Aalberg in Helsinki's Kaisaniemi Park, behind the Finnish National Theatre, in front of the Small Stage. The sculpture, which rises to a height of nine meters, was unveiled in 1972. It depicts, suggestively, a pleated curtain on the stage.
Sight 13: Finnish National Theatre
The Finnish National Theatre, established in 1872, is a theatre located in central Helsinki on the northern side of the Helsinki Central Railway Station Square. The Finnish National Theatre is the oldest Finnish speaking professional theatre in Finland. It was known as the Finnish Theatre until 1902, when it was renamed the Finnish National Theatre.
Sight 14: Aleksis Kivi Memorial
The Aleksis Kivi Memorial is a statue dedicated to the Finnish author Aleksis Kivi (1834–1872), designed and sculpted by Wäinö Aaltonen.
Sight 15: Blue Line
The Blue Straight is a work by visual artist Kimmo Kaivanto at Tampere Hall in Tampere. The work was completed at the same time as the building in 1990.
Sight 16: The Lantern Carriers
Lyhdynkantajat is a group of sculptures at the main entrance to the Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland. The sculptures were designed by Emil Wikström and completed in 1914. Lyhdynkantajat is part of the façade of the Art Nouveau station designed by Eliel Saarinen.
Sight 17: Metro Lines
Metro Lines is a painting by Jouko Christiansson at the Railway Square metro station in Helsinki. The work is placed at the top of the station's escalator. It was unveiled on October 30, 1985. The work won the general competition held to find a work of art for the station.
Sight 18: Yhdessä
One is a semi-abstract sculpture designed by Björn Weckström, in which two human figures embrace each other. The sculpture was donated by HYY Group on Flora Day 2018 to the Student Union of the University of Helsinki to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
Sight 19: The Three Smiths
The Three Smiths Statue is a sculpture by Felix Nylund, situated in Helsinki, Finland, in Three Smiths Square at the intersection of Aleksanterinkatu and Mannerheimintie. This realistic statue, unveiled in 1932, depicts three naked smiths hammering on an anvil.
Sight 20: Ylioppilasteatteri
Ylioppilasteatteri is a professionally run amateur theatre operating in Helsinki, founded in 1926 under the name of the Academic Drama Society. It changed its name to the Student Theatre in the early 1930s.
Sight 21: Amos Rex
Amos Rex is an art museum named after the publisher and arts patron Amos Anderson and located in Lasipalatsi, on Mannerheimintie boulevard in Helsinki, Finland. It opened in 2018 and rapidly reached international popularity, attracting more than 10,000 visitors in a matter of weeks.
Sight 22: East and West / Monument of J. K. Paasikivi
The J. K. Paasikivi Memorial, also called Itä ja Länsi is a memorial sculpture for the Finnish president Juho Kusti Paasikivi by the sculptor Harry Kivijärvi, located in Kamppi, Helsinki. The sculpture is located at Paasikivenaukio Square along Mannerheimintie in front of the so-called Supplier House, north of the Lasipalatsi building. The sculpture was revealed in 1980.
Sight 23: Marsalkka Mannerheimin ratsastajapatsas
A bronze equestrian statue of Field Marshal Gustaf Mannerheim stands in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. It was made by Aimo Tukiainen and erected in 1960.
Wikipedia: Equestrian statue of Marshal Mannerheim (EN), Website
Sight 24: Kiasma
The Kiasman of the Museum of Contemporary Art was designed by US architect Steven Holl, who won the museum's architectural competition in 1993.
Sight 25: Töölönlahden puisto
Töölönlahdenpuisto Park is a public park located on the southern shore of Töölönlahti Bay in the centre of Helsinki. It borders Hesperianpuisto Park to the west, the main railway line to the east and Töölönlahdenkatu to the south. The park was completed in summer 2016 on the site of the former Töölö freight rail yard, a few years after the Helsinki Harbour Railway and VR's warehouses had been demolished. Töölönlahti Park, as well as the Zoo area north of Töölönlahti Bay, can be counted as part of Helsinki Central Park.
Sight 26: Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more.
Sight 27: Helsinki Art Museum HAM
Helsinki Art Museum, abbreviated as HAM, is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland. It is located in Tennispalatsi in the district of Kamppi. The museum reopened after renovations and rebranding in 2015.
Sight 28: Gecko
Gekko is a spatial work created by ceramic artist Pekka Paikkari, Kristiina Riska and Kati Tuominen-Niittylä at Kamppi metro station in Helsinki. The work is covered with ceramic tiles, shaped like a concrete protective cover for escalators. The metro escalator tube goes from Kamppi's street-level central lobby through the long-distance bus terminal down to the metro station. The diameter of the pipe is about four meters, and it holds about 275 square meters of ceramics. Gekko graduated in 2005.
Sight 29: Kamppi Chapel
The Kamppi Chapel is a chapel in the neighbourhood of Kamppi in Helsinki, Finland, located on the Narinkka Square. It is also known as the "Chapel of Silence" since it is intended to be a place to calm down and have a moment of silence in one of the busiest areas of the city.
Sight 30: Lapinlahden puistikko
Lapinlahden puistikko is located in the triangle between Lapinlahdenkatu, Eerikinkatu and Albertinkatu in Helsinki. In 2001, Latvian artist Oskars Mikans' sculpture Man Rises from a Garbage Bin depicting Arvo Parkkila was erected there.
Sight 31: Lastenlehto
Children's Grove is a triangular park in Kamppi, Helsinki. It is bordered by Lapinlahdenkatu, Lapinrinne and Ruoholahdenkatu. The name of the park derives from the children's home of the Lady's Folk Association that was once located nearby.
Sight 32: Akseli Gallen Kallela
Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national identity. He finnicized his name from Gallén to Gallen-Kallela in 1907.
Sight 33: Sakari Topelius
Zacharias Topelius was a Finnish author, poet, journalist, historian, and rector of the University of Helsinki who wrote novels related to Finnish history. He wrote his works exclusively in Swedish, although they were translated early on into Finnish.
Sight 34: Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson was a Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author of Swedish descent. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Paris. She held her first solo art exhibition in 1943. Over the same period, she penned short stories and articles for publication, and subsequently drew illustrations for book covers, advertisements, and postcards. She continued her work as an artist and writer for the rest of her life.
Sight 35: Aurora Karamzina
Eva Aurora Charlotta Karamzin was a Finnish philanthropist. Her better-known names are Princess Aurora Demidova and Aurora Karamzin, titles that were acquired after her first and second marriages, respectively.
Sight 36: J. V. Snellman
Johan Vilhelm Snellman was an influential Fennoman philosopher and Finnish statesman, ennobled in 1866. He was one of the most important 'awakeners' or promoters of Finnish nationalism, alongside Elias Lönnrot and J. L. Runeberg.
Sight 37: Profeetta Elian kirkko
The Church of the Prophet Elijah in Helsinki or Cemetery Church is an Orthodox church in the Orthodox cemetery in Helsinki. The church was designed by architect Ivan Kudriavzev and completed in 1958.
Share
How likely are you to recommend us?
Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.
GPX-Download For navigation apps and GPS devices you can download the tour as a GPX file.