Suomenlinna Fortress is an eighteenth century artillery fort built on a group of islands just outside Helsinki and is a popular visit from the city. The fort was built by the Swedes, occupied by the Russians and finally became Finnish with independence in 1918.
Visiting Suomenlinna Fortress
The only way to visit Suomenlinna Fortress is by boat, either water bus or ferry from the Market Square. This takes around 20 minutes and unless you have a drone, is probably the best way to see the fortress and appreciate its design.
Once on the islands there are cafes and restaurants, various museums including an excellent military museum, a submarine and plenty of space for picnics and sunbathing (in summer!). There is an excellent map to the attractions on the islands here, copied from the official website shown below.
My Experience
Our visit to Suomenlinna Fortress was as part of our long weekend break in Helsinki, detailed in my travel blog here. The ferry across to the island was peaceful and it was a gorgeous summer day for us to explore the fort.
The paths were well laid out and each stopping point had an information board detailing the particular battery or defensive bastion. The cafe was excellent and it was nice to look back to Helsinki and see just how controlling the fort would be.
The submarine you can visit, Vessiko, was quite enlightening. It was incredibly cramped and sweaty, even without the engines running. Bunks were narrow, solid and shared so it wasn’t really a pleasant environment for the crews!
The military museum was another excellent visit and the heroism of the Finns in the 1939 Winter War was really quite astonishing. I also didn’t realise quite how much land the Finns lost to the Russians after World War 2.
Suomenlinna Fortress Photo Gallery
These next photos were taken in the dim and distant past of 2005 and they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!
History
Suomenlinna fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located approximately one kilometer off the coast from Helsinki. Originally Suomenlinna was a bastion fortress built on an group of islands and consisting of four closed fortresses, each on an island of its own, supplemented with open fortifications on two more islands. Within the walls was a garrison town with barracks and residential buildings, and a naval base with its dry docks and storage buildings. Until 1808, Suomenlinna was a Swedish fortress, but at the same time also an important naval base. Today, Suomenlinna is one of Finland’s most significant tourist attractions and a popular recreation and residential area with some 900 inhabitants.
As a result of two wars in the beginning of the 18th century, the Swedish Empire lost all its provinces and towns on the eastern border. In order not to lose all of Finland, the Parliament decided to build a central fortress for the protection of the eastern parts of the empire. The construction work began under the command of Augustin Ehrensvärd in 1748, and a few years later the fortress was named Sveaborg “Castle of Sweden” – which the Finnish soldiers working in the fortress transformed into a name “Viapori”. Built by the army soldiers in the course of forty years, this fortress off Helsinki had a total of 8 km of fortified walls. Sveaborg was the largest fortress of the Swedish Empire.
Russia attacked Finland in 1808 and after a few weeks’ siege Viapori surrendered. Finland became a part of Russia and for the next 110 years the fortress served as a Russian fortress. The Russians built large barracks and hospitals for the garrison, but thought it unnecessary to strengthen the fortress itself. Thus, an Anglo-French fleet was able to bombard the fortress without interruption during the Crimean War in 1855 causing severe damage. After the war, new sea defence line with earth ramparts and 9- and 10-inch cannons was built.
On May 12th in 1918, the year after Finland gained independence, the Finnish flag was solemnly raised at the Kustaanmiekka fortification in the presence of Regent Svinhufvud and the Senate. The fortress was renamed Suomenlinna (‘Fortress of Finland’) and served as a Finnish garrison for more than fifty years. In 1973 the area came under civil administration, carried out by the Governing Body of Suomenlinna. However, it is still home to the Naval Academy. The Ehrensvärd Society was founded in 1921 with the purpose of making Suomenlinna and its history known and cherishing its valuable cultural heritage. Suomenlinna is on the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites.
References
The fortress website with full information on how to get there and what to see is here.
The history above is copied from the Suomenlinna Tours site here.