Helsinki

Built on the peninsulas and islands of the Baltic shoreline, Helsinki is a city of the sea. Streets curve around bays, bridges arch between islands, and ferries carry traffic to islands farther offshore. The smell of the sea hovers over the city, and there is a constant bustle in the harbours as the huge ships that ply the Baltic drop and lift anchor.

The city covers a total of 1,140 square km (433 square mi), including 315 islands, with at least 30% of the metropolitan area reserved for parks and other open spaces. Most of Helsinki's sights, however, are crowded onto a single peninsula.

In the 16th century the Swedish king Gustav Vasa, at that time ruler of Finland as well, was determined to woo trade away from the Estonian city of Tallinn and the Hanseatic League. Helsinki was founded next to the rapids of the Vantaa River on June 12, 1550, by a group of Finns who had settled here upon the king's orders.

Over the next three centuries, Turku, on Finland's west coast, was the country's political and intellectual capital. Helsinki took center stage only when Sweden ceded Finland to Russia in 1809. Tsar Alexander I turned Finland into an autonomous grand duchy, proclaiming Helsinki its capital in 1812. Around the same time, much of Turku burned to the ground, and its university was forced to move to Helsinki. From then on Helsinki's position as Finland's first city was assured.

Just before the tsar's proclamation, a fire destroyed many of Helsinki's traditional wooden buildings, making it necessary to build a new city center. The German-born architect Carl Ludvig Engel was entrusted with the project, and thanks to him Helsinki has some of the purest neoclassical architecture in the world. Add to this foundation the stunning outlines of the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) period of the early 20th century and more modern buildings designed by native Finnish architects, and you have one of Europe's most visually appealing cities.