Although Helsinki has enough to keep visitors busy for at least a week, side trips to two other coastal cities, Porvoo and Turku, round out a trip and give another view of Finland. The country’s second oldest town, Porvoo (30 miles east of Helsinki) rises from a picturesque riverfront lined with little red wooden buildings, through a charming tangle of old streets and ochre-coloured wooden houses to its hilltop medieval cathedral.
Museum of Art Nouveau
On the way, two museums face the market square, one with local history exhibits and the other an art museum featuring the work of several Art Nouveau-era artists, who formed an art colony here at the turn of the 20th century. The artist Louis Sparr founded the Iris Factory here, which pioneered in furniture and ceramic styles. Examples of the Sparr’s furniture, Iris ceramics and paintings of Porvoo native, the prominent artist Albert Edelfelt are displayed in the Edelfelt-Vallgren Museum. In summer you can cruise here from Helsinki or take the train. Porvoo is still known for its fine crafts, so allow time for browsing the shops and studios.
Finland's Oldest City
Travel west from Helsinki along the historic Kings Road to reach Turku. Nearly 800 years old, Turku is Finland’s oldest city, although there’s nothing stuck-in-the-past about it – it hosts the annual Ruisrock, Scandinavia’s oldest rock festival, where all the rock icons have performed. But its castle (begun in 1280), marketplace, cathedral (begin even earlier) and a river harbor seem straight out of the Middle Ages, especially during the midsummer Medieval Festival, when the old square is filled with period crafts and foods.
The river is alive in summer with historic boats and music drifting out from floating restaurants; winter brings skaters to its frozen surface, which becomes a glittering fairy-tale world as thousands of tiny lights in the trees and reflect off the snow. Along the river near the castle, Forum Marinumcombines museum, shipyard and maritime research, displaying 3500 artifacts and two historic vessels to tour.
See 800 Years of History
Turku Castle,Finland’s largest, is an impressive fortress with outer walls 10 feet thick. Its maze of stairways and passages leads from the courtyard to towers, banqueting halls and a chapel with Medieval woodcarving.
An entire neighborhood of 40 homes, all dating before 1827, is preserved as Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum, showing the everyday lives and work of ordinary people. About 30 artisans demonstrate period crafts, from unique wire weaving and printing to carving shaved-wood ornaments. Buy examples of their work from them or in the museum shop.
Two sharply contrasting museums occupy different levels of the same site: Aboa Vetus, an excavated city block of medieval Turku, explores the history of the site and the archaeology of its discovery and preservation. Upstairs, Ars Nova traces movements and styles in modern art through 500-plus works by major contemporary and 20th-century artists.
Sibelius Museum
Even those with no ear for music enjoy visiting the stunning contemporary Sibelius Museum, just for the building. Built in 1968, it was Finland’s first glass and concrete building, and the concrete is textured and molded to simulates rough-cut wood. Its organic sand color is brought out by lighting effects. The atrium is a beautiful setting for Wed evening concerts.
The Turku Card gives free admission to all city museums and transport, and is worthwhile for visitors who plan to see a lot of museums. All the major sites are within walking distance.
