9 Best Sights in Kauppatori, Helsinki

It feels like another world, but the sea views and rugged shorelines of this sea fortress, Helsinki's top historical destination, are a 15-minute harbor ferry hop from the Market Square in the center of town. It's a perennially popular collection of fortifications, museums, parks, and gardens and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1748, Finland's Swedish rulers started to build the impregnable fortress, long referred to as the Gibraltar of the North, across a series of interlinked islands. Although Suomenlinna has never been taken by assault, it came under Russian governance with the rest of Finland in 1808 and came under fire from British and French ships in 1855 during the Crimean War. Today Suomenlinna makes a lovely excursion from Helsinki at any time of the year but particularly in early summer when the island is carpeted by wildflowers and engulfed in a mauve-and-purple mist of lilacs, introduced from Versailles by the marshal and founder of the fortress Augustin Ehrensvärd. Visiting the islands is free but the various museums, including a wonderful Toy Museum, a Military Museum, a Customs Museum, a historical Suomenlinna Museum, and the Ehrensvärd Museum, do charge admission. There are several cafés and restaurants on the islands, including the Cafe Silo in a former Russian merchant's house and a quayside brewery restaurant. Note that the only place to stay on the islands is the hostel near the city ferry jetty.

The Suomenlinna Museo is housed in the same building as the visitor center. exhibits cover the building of the fortress and the fleet and early life on islands; the ticket price includes the Suomenlinna Experience multimedia show.

This fountain's brass centerpiece, a young woman perched on rocks surrounded by dolphins, was commissioned by the city fathers to embody Helsinki. Sculptor Ville Vallgren completed her in 1908 using a Parisian girl as his model. It's a well-known landmark and meeting place for locals, marking the eastern end of the Esplanade and the edge of the South Harbour. Partying university students annually crown the Havis Amanda with their white caps on the eve of Vappu, the May 1 holiday.

The 115-year-old redbrick market hall, close to the shipyard, houses a variety of small restaurants serving everythng from sushi and soups to meze and ramen. It's an excellent venue for lunch or to shop for local breads, cheeses, and smoked meats and fish. An outdoor flea market offers the rejects of countless Helsinki attics and cellars in the adjacent market square through the summer, a colorful and lively mecca for vintage bargain hunters.

The resident Amur tigers, snow leopards, and reindeer like the cold climate here, one of the world's northernmost zoos, but there are all sorts of other animals to view, including pygmy marmosets and bison. Korkeasaari has a good reputation for breeding and conserving endangered species and is home to a wildlife hospital. Entirely within the limits of this small island, the winding paths make the zoo seem larger than it actually is. Between May and September, ferries depart from the Market Square and from a quay in the Hakaniemi district. Tickets, which can be bought on the ferry, cost €7 round trip and are free for children under 18. Zoo tickets are sold at the zoo entrance. The trip takes 15 minutes; arrival and departure times are posted at the harbor. Alternatively, you can take the metro to the Kulosaari stop, cross under the tracks, and follow the signs for a 20-minute walk to the zoo. Bus 16 runs to the zoo from the Central Railway Station.

This obelisk with a double-headed golden eagle, used by Imperial Russia, was erected in 1835, toppled during the Russian Revolution in 1917, and fully restored in 1972.

Fish, meat, fruit, berries, fresh vegetables, bread and pastries, local cheeses, spices, coffee, and tea—the brick Old Market Hall on the waterfront, close to the outdoor Market Square, is a treasury of delicacies. A soup station, café, and seafood bar make it ideal for a quick lunch, and there is even a small branch of the Alko wine and liquor outlet. Permanent stalls are adorned with decorative carved woodwork, giving the hall a historic feel.

A branch of the Finnish National Gallery, the Sinebrychoff Museum occupies a 19th-century landmark building at the western end of leafy Bulevardi. The wealthy Russian Sinebrychoffs owned a brewing company (the Koff beer for sale throughout Helsinki is their legacy) and lived in this splendid yellow-and-white, 1840 neo-Renaissance mansion filled with wildly opulent furniture. The family's former home on the second floor is now a public museum containing old European collections. Dutch, Swedish, Italian, and French works are on show, with a mixture of 17th- and 18th-century portraits, landscapes, miniatures, porcelain, and the mansion's original decorative furniture.

From June through August, guided English-language tours leave daily at 11 am and 2 pm from the Suomenlinna Visitor Centre; call to arrange tours at other times. The center, which is in the same building as the Suomenlinna Museum, is on the shore of Tykistölahti Bay, about 400 yards south of the main ferry terminal