Helsinki City Museum: Old Helsinki days

While in Finland, my big sis took us on a day tour of Helsinki though our time was very much limited but nevertheless we squeezed in about an hour of visit at the Helsinki City Museum. We chose it from among the many museums listed on our guide since it was just within the city and dropping by is another way of learning more about the Helsinki’s history. I wanted so much to drop by the contemporary art museum but we really lack the time. Anyway, it was such an enjoyable one for us, we stayed longer than expected.

The museum has an ongoing exhibition titled “Helsinki Horizons” which features the history of the Finnish capital in pictures, paintings, artifacts and stories over the past 450 years. A lot of interesting items with explanations for each exhibit are printed in Finnish, Swedish and English. There were also cardboards with a list identifying each item, also in the three mentioned languages.

The museum entrance where behind the front doors, the visitors are greeted by a big screen with a film showing about the ongoing exhibition titled “Helsinki Horizons”.

At the ground floor were shown the Old Helsinki days during the Swedish era, with the scale models of ships and ancient tools used for fishing and livelihood, then the founding of Helsinki by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden, and the gradual progress of civilization.

Quick information about the Helsinki City Museum:

Location: Sofiankatu 4, Helsinki
Tel. +358 (0)9 310 36630
Cameras are allowed
Entrance is FREE
Exhibit captions in Finnish, Swedish and English
Opening hours: 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday
11am – 5pm Saturday & Sunday

Museum Shop (ground floor at the right side before the museum entrance)
Opening hours: 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday
11am – 5pm Saturday & Sunday

Picture Archives:
Customer service 10am – 3pm Mondays & Thursdays

To be continued