Sveaborg Fortress (Suomenlinna)- one of the largest sea fortresses in the world; a complex of defensive structures near the capital. It has an island location, so you need to get to it by ferry from. This is undoubtedly one of the brightest landmarks in Finland in terms of architecture and history. She entered according to the version of our site.
Sveaborg was built in the 18th century when Finland was part of Sweden. Hence the original name - Sveaborg, i.e. "Swedish fortress". After gaining sovereignty, the fortress began to be called Suomenlinna, i.e. "Finnish fortress". For several decades, this fortress has been a reliable defense for the Finnish capital. However, in 1808 it fell under the onslaught of Russian troops and fell into the possession of Russia for almost a century.
Sveaborg occupies as many as eight islands, each of which is unique in its own way. The most popular of these is Iso Mustasaari. You can get a complete picture of what Sveaborg is by taking a leisurely stroll through them. Especially comfortable in summer time when even the nights are warm. The last ferry to the city departs at 2 am.
In general, getting to the fortress will not be difficult. From the pier located at Presidential Palace, ferries depart regularly towards the islands. Travel time is about 15 minutes. The ferry ride is no less exciting than the tour of the fortress. After all, along the way, a picturesque view of the vastness of the bay opens.
The complex has a number of interesting museums: Museum of History; Toy Museum, Customs Museum, etc. There is also a city prison for those convicted of minor offenses. As a rule, they are entrusted with community service. Moreover, a small settlement of 900 people lives on the islands.
Attraction photo: Sveaborg Fortress (Suomenlinna)
Although the fortress Suomenlinna and is one of the main attractions of Helsinki, not every tourist from Russia who comes to the capital of Finland visits it. Someone is limited to a view from the embankment, someone floats by on a motor ship going to Stockholm Silja line... But in vain! It is a must-visit - if only out of respect for the history of your own country.
Swedish fortress
A dashingly twisted biography of the fortress should start not even from its birth, but from a slightly earlier time. In 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg from the east Gulf of Finland, and, to paraphrase the classics, it is from this point that we began to threaten the Swede. It is not surprising that Sweden is thinking about retaliatory actions. We thought for a long time. During this time, Russia managed to win two wars against its formidable neighbor.
During the Northern War of 1700-1721, Helsingfors (future Helsinki) came under the control of the Russian army and burned to the ground. According to the Russian version - as a result of a fierce artillery duel between our fleet and the Swedish coastal artillery, according to the Swedish - it was burned by the retreating troops so that nothing would get to the enemy. According to the Peace of Nishtad in 1721, Peter I annexed only part of the Finnish lands (Ingermanlandia, Kegsgolm district,). Helsingfors was returned to Sweden.
In the postwar years, the political life of Sweden consisted of the struggle of adherents of peaceful relations with Russia (party of "caps") and supporters of revenge (party of "hats"). The revenge-seekers prevailed, but during the Russian-Swedish war of 1741-1743, they again received a hat.
In August 1742, Russian ground forces under the command of General Field Marshal P.P. Lasi with the assistance of a squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Z.D. Mishukov blocked Helsingfors and forced the Swedish army to surrender without a fight. Peace in Abo, concluded in 1743, was successful for Russia. The Baltic border continued to move towards Stockholm.
In 1747, the outstanding Swedish military engineer, artillery and fortification specialist Augustin Ehrensvärd (“hat” for political views) persuaded King Fredrik I to accept the plan to build new fortresses to oppose the Russian fleet in the Baltic (albeit in a truncated form and with a cut budget).
On the group of islands, which represent a natural barrier of the Helsingforsky raid, the name of which is translated into Russian very romantic - "Wolf Skerries", the construction of the fortress began. She received the uncomplicated name Sveaborg (that is, "Swedish castle", "Swedish fortress"). True, almost immediately the locals began to pronounce the name with a Finnish accent - Viapori.
It was a real construction site of the century. Nothing of the kind was built anywhere in Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Defensive structures were erected by 6 thousand people. The main stage of construction stretched over four decades, and minor improvements continued later. "Father Sveaborg" and the first commandant of the fortress, Count Ehrensvärd, did not live to see the completion of the construction. And although he died on the family estate, the count was reburied in the fortress. The grave of Ehrensvärd with a splendid tombstone is one of the most photographed sights of Sveaborg.
Sveaborg, built according to the most advanced French designs, received the proud nickname "Northern Gibraltar", which was supposed to symbolize its inaccessibility. A powerful military garrison was placed in the fortress, which turned Sveaborg into the second largest after locality Finland.
In 1806, 4600 people lived on the islands, and 4200 on the coast. The future Helsinki was by and large a village, in which only in 1757 the first stone house appeared, which belonged to the adviser of commerce Johann Sederholm. This is the same small two-story house on Senate Square, which is photographed by all tourists as soon as they take pictures of the cathedral and the monument to Alexander II.
In 1807, at a meeting of the Russian Emperor Alexander I with his French counterpart Napoleon Bonaparte in Tilsit, an agreement was reached that Russia could annex Finland to its territory. On February 9, 1808, Russian troops under the command of Infantry General Count F.F. Buxgewden crossed the border, and on February 18 they entered Helsingfors. Soon Sveaborg was under siege, remaining the only settlement in southern Finland that did not surrender.
The fortress housed about a third of all Swedish troops stationed in Finland: 7,500 soldiers and officers, 1,500 civilians, 354 convicts and six Russian prisoners of war; 110 warships, more than 2 thousand guns, 100 tons of gunpowder. The commandant of the fortress, Vice-Admiral Karl-Olaf Kronstedt, commanded the defense.
There were fewer besiegers of "northern Gibraltar", they had only 59 cannons at their disposal, and they did not have huge reserves of gunpowder either. But soon the commandant of the fortress signed a truce for a month, deciding at the end of this period to capitulate if he did not receive reinforcements from Stockholm. The messengers sent to Stockholm did not manage to reach their destination during this month.
On the third of May, Sveaborg capitulated. And again we are dealing with two conflicting versions regarding the reasons for how this happened. According to the first, the poorly trained Finnish peasant soldiers are to blame and the Swedish officers, who did not want to die, do not understand why, the malfunction of most of the cannons, the quickly consumed gunpowder, the lack of food supplies in the fortress and the lack of experience in Kronstedt, who had previously won victories only at sea. The second version, which military historians call "golden gunpowder," is based on rumors that the Russian military command allegedly gave the commandant a large bribe. This fact has never been documented.
After the conclusion of the Peace of Friedrichsgam, according to which all of Finland passed to Russia, Vice-Admiral Kronstedt was made in Sweden almost the main culprit of the national catastrophe. He was sentenced to death, but pardoned at the request of the Russian emperor. The vice admiral retired, but refused to enlist in the Russian army, wore Swedish orders, but did not disdain to receive a Russian military pension, his son became a Finnish senator, and the relatives who remained in Sweden changed their names.
Russian fortress
After the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, the Sveaborg fortress became Russian. The new owners did not rename the "Swedish castle" in the Russian way. But the islands on which the fortress is located were renamed, although not immediately. At first, they used Swedish names, which were written with a Nizhny Novgorod accent.
The Finns, of course, pronounced all the names in their own way, so that each island had a whole bunch of names. Here are some examples: Gustavsvard (Gustav-Sverde), aka Kustaanmieka, aka Artillery; Stora-Ostersvarto (Sture-Ostersvart), aka Iso-Mustasaari, aka Commandant; Vargon (Vargen), aka Susisaari, aka Engineer.
Although Sveaborg soon hosted twice as many Russian soldiers as there had once been Swedish and Finnish soldiers, the island fortress began to slowly lose its importance, and the settlement on the coast gained more and more importance. The reason for this was the announcement in 1812 of Helsingfors new capital the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland (within the Russian Empire). Former village when the fortress gradually began to turn into a city with a fortress on the outskirts of the sea.
By the way, in 1811 a son was born in the fortress in the family of the garrison doctor Grigory Belinsky, who received the name Vissarion at baptism.
The interval between the first and second siege of Sveaborg was almost half a century. In the summer of 1855, during the Crimean War (which, contrary to its name, was fought not only on the Black Sea), the Russian Baltic Fleet was blocked in Sveaborg by the superior Anglo-French fleet.
On 28 July (from the point of view of the attackers) or 9 August (from the point of view of the defenders), shelling of the fortress began. The temporary commandant of Sveaborg, Lieutenant General A.F. Sorokin, did not seem to need a French military pension and did not dream of a place in the House of Lords for his son, and therefore managed to organize the defense of the fortress remarkably.
For two days and two nights of constant bombing on the fortress and other islands near Helsingfors, more than 20 thousand shells were fired, "according to an approximate and most moderate estimate." V Finnish capital from where the shelling was clearly visible, panic began - the residents feared that the enemy would start shooting at the city.
Despite the force of the bombing, the material damage done to the fortress was negligible. The losses of the defenders amounted to 63 killed, about 200 wounded and shell-shocked. The enemy lost 33 people. After several days of calm, the Allied fleet left the Baltic Sea. English and French newspapers wrote that Helsingfors and the Sveaborg fortress were razed to the ground.
The next time the fortress became the arena of battles in the summer of 1906. This time there was no external enemy. The commandant of the fortress, General V.A.Layming, received information about the impending general uprising in the Baltic fleet and gave the order to mine the approaches to the fortress. Some of the minelayers refused to obey the order.
There is, however, as always, another version. Since the times of Peter the Great, a sailor who stood watch in cold weather was entitled to a glass of vodka or compensation for its cost in money. For some reason, the sailors in the fortress did not get either one or the other, which caused discontent. One way or another, but the commandant gave a new order - to arrest the troublemakers.
And then an uprising broke out. The forces were divided approximately equally. The revolt, to which the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Bolsheviks had a hand, was attended by about 2 thousand people who took possession of the islands of Aleksandrovsky, Artillery, Mikhailovsky and Inzhenerny. There were about the same number of servicemen loyal to the oath, they fortified on the Commandant and Lagerniy Islands.
The mutiny was suppressed in two days. 28 organizers and the most active participants were shot, more than a thousand were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment or sent to prison companies. About 600 people died in the battle. In the Brezhnev era in the USSR, a feature film "Sveaborg" was shot about these events, of course, very far from a true depiction of history.
Finnish fortress
In 1918, shortly after the proclamation of Finland's independence, the Sveaborg fortress was renamed Suomenlinna (Finnish fortress). For a short time it housed a concentration camp, which contained those who participated in the civil war in Finland on the side of the Reds. Of the 8,500 prisoners a year later, after the camp was closed, 7,500 were released. The rest were mowed down by hunger and infectious diseases.
After the closure of the Suomenlinna concentration camp, it becomes a military facility and remains so until 1973, when it comes under the control of the civil administration and turns into one of the districts of Helsinki.
In 1991, the fortress was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. True, the island of Piku-Mustasaari (Hospital) is still at the disposal of the Finnish army. There is another attraction near Suomenlinna, which, alas, cannot be visited for the same reason.
On the island of Sandhamn - Santakhamina - Lagerny to the southeast of the fortress, in 1857, a monument was erected "to the killed 63 sailors and soldiers during the bombardment of Sveaborg by the Anglo-French fleet on July 28 and 29, 1855". The project of the monument was carried out by Professor Baron P. Klodt (the one who cast horses for the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg). But these are small exceptions, and so almost all-wise, right? Wolf skerries are at the disposal of tourists.
You can safely allocate a whole day to visit Suomenlinna, and then you will not be able to see everything that is in the fortress.
But it makes sense not only for those who like to remember the past victories of Russian weapons to go to the Wolf Skerries. The fortress is a fortress, but it is also a place where you can just walk, admire nature, and besides, various events are constantly held there - open air concerts, sailing regattas, exhibitions.
Majority local residents prefer to eat prudently brought with them food. And this is not a stupid decision. Although in order to find a catering establishment, there are no particular problems. The most popular among tourists restaurant Walhalla, however, is open to ordinary visitors only for dinner from Monday to Saturday, and on Sunday and lunchtime only organized groups are allowed there.
Russian patriots can recommend the Nikolai pizzeria. It was named in honor of the merchant Nikolai Petrovich Sinebryukhov, who in 1819 received the exclusive right to produce and sell beer in Finland and almost immediately after receiving a patent that opened a tavern in Sveaborg. The brewing company Oy Sinebryhoff AB bearing his name still exists (here, however, belongs to the Swedish Carlsberg).
Ferries bearing the inscription "Suomenlinna Sveaborg" depart from the fish market (Kauppatori) of Helsinki from 6 am to 2:20 am at intervals of 40 minutes to one hour. Travel time is 15 minutes. Round-trip ticket price is € 3.80. In summer, water buses also leave the neighboring pier. Holders of the Helsinki card can use the ferry and visit all the museums in the fortress free of charge. You can park your own yacht at the guest port on the island of Susisaari, subject to availability.
Suomenlinna can be visited all year round, the fortress is open 365 days a year, but it is better to do it in the summer. The islands are home to 900 people, about 400 more work on them. Many of the houses on the islands are used as art studios. On the territory of the Suomenlinna fortress there is a prison for those convicted of minor crimes. The prisoners are mainly engaged in maintaining the fortresses in proper form.
The entrance to the fortress itself is free, you have to pay only when visiting museums. The fortress houses the Suomenlinna Museum, the Ehrensvärd Museum, the Manezh (Museum of the Soviet-Finnish and World War II), the Vessiko submarine, and a free customs museum. It is hard not to notice that most of the cannons in the fortress have inscriptions in Russian. It will be especially pleasant, I think, to study them for the natives of Perm.
The local church was once the garrison church of the Russian limited contingent in Sveaborg and was called the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The cathedral was built by the architect Konstantin Ton. And although not only Lutheran, but also Orthodox services have been held here since 2000, the external appearance of the building was irreparably damaged back in 1928 by the architect Frans Seström. Instead of a small copy of the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, we now see an unremarkable Lutheran temple.
Being in the fortress, somewhere around 17: 20-17: 30 you can take part in the daily ritual - together with other tourists, wave your hand to the Silja Line ferry passing by, towards Stockholm. If for any reason you are late and don't wave, don't worry. In half an hour you will be given a second attempt - to escort the Viking ferry to the Swedish capital.
Thanks to the Schengen Agreement, today you can go from Helsinki to Stockholm for a day or two without any visas. And the ferries mentioned are in themselves the attractions of both Scandinavian capitals. And if you are sailing aboard one of them, do not miss at the very beginning of the journey the island with a fortress, from the shore of which strangers are waving their hands to you.
ALEXEY ALEXEEV
proof
Technical sponsor
Suomenlinna or Sveaborg, as the Swedes called this place, translates into Russian as "Finnish fortress". Currently, it is one of the districts of Helsinki, where about eight hundred people live, and in the old days, bastion fortifications located on the islands defended Helsingfors from the sea.
Suomenlinna fortress
Geography of the "Wolf Skerries"
Five of the islands: Kustaanmiekka, Susisaari, Pikku Mustasaari, Länsi-Mustasaari and Iso Mustasaari, are connected by bridges or spits, while the islands of Lonna, Särkkä and Pormestarinluodot are isolated.
The southernmost of the interconnected islands is Kustaanmiekka. It is connected to Susisaari by a narrow isthmus, along which the defensive rampart passes. At its southern end are the Royal Gate and bastions with guns. There are small bodies of water in the rocky rock in the center of the island. Susisaari Island is located in the center of the fortress. There are museums here. The island is separated from Iso Mustasaari by a narrow strait and is connected by a wooden bridge. Iso Mustasaari is located in the northeast. It houses a church, a fortress museum, a doll museum and the main pier. Pikku Mustasaari and Länsi-Mustasaari are in the northwest and are connected to the bridge. And the bridge connects Pikka Mustasaari with Iso Mustasaari.
The total area of the islands is approximately 80 hectares.
A bit of history
The Suomenlinna fortress was erected in the 18th century on the "Wolf Skerries" (the so-called islands) covering the city, after a series of defeats of the Swedes in the war with Russia. Its purpose was to keep the Russian troops from invading the territory of Finland, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. The construction of the fortress began in 1748 and lasted forty years. But in 1808, after a short siege, Sveaborg surrendered to the Russian troops, and the fortress passed to the Russians. Under the peace treaty of 1809, Finland was ceded by Sweden to Russia. Until 1918, there was a Russian garrison in Sveaborg. In the history of the fortress there are glorious pages of the valiant rebuff of the Russian troops to the Anglo-French squadron during the Crimean War (1855), when the enemy forces significantly outnumbered the artillery of the defenders of the fortress.
Suomenlinna got its name after Finland became an independent country in 1918.
Important dates in the history of the fortress
- 1748 - Finland is part of the Kingdom of Sweden. Under the leadership of Augustin Ehrensvärd, the construction of the sea fortress begins.
- 1750 - King Fredrik I of Sweden gives the fortress the name Sveaborg.
- 1788 - The fortress serves as a base during the Swedish war against Russia.
- 1808 - Finnish War. The fortress is surrendered to the Russian troops. For the next 110 years, it served as the base of the Russian fleet.
- 1809 - Finland becomes an autonomous part of the Russian Empire.
- 1855 - Crimean War. The fortress was bombarded by the Anglo-French fleet, which is why it was badly damaged.
- 1918 - Finnish Civil War. A prisoner of war camp is set up in the fortress. The fortress becomes part of the territory of the state of Finland and receives the name Suomenlinna.
- 1939 - World War II. The fortress serves as a military base for coastal artillery, air defense and submarine fleet.
- 1973 - The Finnish garrison leaves the fortress. To manage the Suomenlinna Fortress, an Administrative Body was established under the Ministry of Education and Culture.
- 1991 - The fortress is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as a unique example of the architecture of defensive structures.
Suomenlinna's New Life - Open Air Museum
In 1973, a unique museum was opened on the territory of the Suomenlinna fortress. open air... Today Suomenlinna is the most famous historical landmark in Helsinki, included in the UNESCO list of unique military monuments. There is no tourist who would not keep his eyes on the fortifications, sailing past the fortress on a ferry. But it is much more interesting to visit here and touch the history, to see the preserved forts, bastions, barracks, to visit the Manezh military museum, the customs museum, the Ehrensvärd museum, as well as the toy museum. Here you can even see in every detail and visit the Vesikko submarine, which sailed in the northern seas during World War II. It should be noted that the museums are open only during the summer. All year round, only the Suomenlinna Museum is open, where there is a permanent exhibition telling the history of the fortress. And every half hour the museum shows a short film about the fortress.
Suomenlinna Fortress or Sveaborg- these are 4 islands off the coast of the city of Helsinki, formerly also called Suomenlinna, this is a striking symbol of the city of Helsinki. Erected by the French and intended to become the “Northern Gibraltar.” Suomenlinna is now a working open-air museum.
History of origin.
Under the Swedes, the fortress was called Sveaborg - i.e. Swedish fortress. The Finns called her Viapori. The history of Suomenlinna Fortress is closely related to the history of Finland, Helsinki and Baltic Sea... The Suomenlinna Fortress appeared on the map of Finland in the nineteenth century. An important defensive line from the east, the fortress passed to Russia in the early 19th century, and, in addition to the naval bases in Tallinn and Kronstadt, it was used to guard the fairways to St. Petersburg.
Architecture.
Suomenlinna Fortress is a complex of chaotically located bastions built on small rocky islands. From the very beginning, the defensive structures and structures of the fortress were also used for utilitarian needs. Suomenlinna is largely authentic, that is, a historically original structure. Dozens of underwater historical sites have been discovered near Suomenlinna Fortress.
Neighborhood.
In the immediate vicinity is the Suomenlinna Fortress Museum (Suomenlinna-museo). The museum contains unique specimens of the pre-revolutionary artillery of Imperial Russia - for example, a 6-inch siege cannon of the 1904 model and other weapons. In the collection of the Toy Museum, you will find thousands of objects and things for children, the oldest of which were made at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. In addition, the museum has a separate room with military toys. The Ehrensvärd Museum displays miniature ship models, antique furniture, weapons and paintings by the Sveaborg artist Elias Martin. Here you can also visit the Military Museum in the Manezh, which is located in a building that was previously used by the Russian army as an artillery warehouse. Nowadays there is a Finnish military equipment.
You can also see the Vesikko submarine, which was used during the Second World War. Almost all the premises are open to the public inside the boat.
Tourist notes.
The Suomenlinna Museum is open all year round, from May to October it is open from 10:00 to 18:00, the rest of the time it opens half an hour later and closes at 16:30.
The Ehrensvärd Museum is open throughout the summer season from 11:00 to 18:00, and in the spring and autumn only on weekends, from 11:00 to 16:00.
The Toy Museum is open to visitors only from March to October, from 11:00 to 17:00.
The military museum is open from mid-May to September, from 11:00 to 18:00, for adults the entrance ticket costs 4 euros, for children under 17 years old - 2 euros.
Admission to the submarine is also open from mid-May to September, from 11:00 to 18:00, cost entrance ticket for adults - 4 euros, for children under 17 years old - 2 euros.
Hostel Suomenlinna is located on the territory of a fortress on the island of Iso Mustasaari.
You can grab a bite to eat in Café Vanille, where you will be offered excellent desserts, or in Café Piper, in the summertime you can dine here in the garden, which is decorated in English style. The Toy Museum Café will be interesting for you - you can have tea with desserts inside a real toy museum. And for true gourmets in Sveaborg, the Walhalla restaurant is open, which will offer you a large selection of dishes and a rich wine list.
Address: Suomenlinna C 74, 00190 Helsinki, Finland.
How to get there: from market square Kauppatori by HKL ferry, which runs 3-4 times per hour, depending on the season. The first ferry departs to Sveaborg at 09:00 am, the last ferry to Helsinki at 6 pm.
Ferry tickets can be purchased at river station, one way trip will cost 4 EUR.
From Kolera-allas river tram JT-Line, optional stop at King's Gate. Tickets are available at the pier and on board, 4 EUR one way.
Sveaborg sea fortress belongs to the administrative part of the city of Helsinki, the total area of which is 80 hectares. The fortress is considered to be the largest in the world. The symbol of the fortress is the monumental majestic Royal Gate, built in 1754.
The Finns call the fortress Suomenlinna, well, our compatriots are more familiar with the name Sveaborg, it just happened historically. Sveaborg, this is part of the history of the Russian Empire, therefore, part of the history of modern Russia!
The history of the Sveaborg fortress
Sveabor fortress d, or in the Finnish version, Suomenlinna was built on the islands with the local name "Wolf Skerries" in the 18th century. The Sveaborg fortress owes its appearance on the map of Europe to a series of defeats of the Swedes in the 1741-1743 war with Russia. Initially, the fortress was designed and built as an outpost designed to contain Russian troops from the invasion of Sweden-controlled Finland. A series of military defeats and the proximity of the northern neighbor, coupled with the loss of all eastern fortifications captured by Russia, greatly worried Sweden. 
An attempt to create an impregnable line of defensive structures was the fortress Sveaborg... Construction, unprecedented in Sweden in its scope, continued for over forty years. The resources spent on construction, both material and human, flowed without interruption, despite the scarcity of the Swedish treasury. Thousands of builders, soldiers, peasants, driven into construction, and of course convicts tirelessly erected the future fortress day and night. Sveaborg looked impregnable, it seemed that it was impossible to capture the fortress. However, in 1808, with minimal losses from the Russians, the fortress was captured. Historians are still arguing about the reasons for the surrender of the fortress by the Swedes; the prevailing opinion is that the lack of ammunition was the culprit for the defeat.
Having fallen into the tenacious hands of the Russian autocracy, Sveaborg had no practical military significance for half a century. The territory was built up with houses, barracks and hospitals.
The sleepy existence was disrupted during the Crimean War of 1855 by an attack by an Anglo-French military squadron.For four days shelling of the fortress continued, numerous fires broke out, many buildings were destroyed. However, all the efforts of the aggressor did not lead to the capture Sveaborga, the fortress remained a subject of the Russian Empire.
By 1890, the fortress acquired a new line of defense, and 9 and 11 inch guns, which were very modern at that time, took over on their combat duty.
Peaceful life continued for the next half a century, and in 1906, a revolutionary infection that sprouted violently on the territory of the Russian Empire gave its shoots in fortress Sveaborg... During the Sveaborg Uprising, the garrison's batteries were covered with a red flag raised by the rebels. The armed confrontation between the insurgents and the ships of the military squadron lasted for three days. The final point in the dispute was put by a shell fired from one of the ships and hitting an ammunition depot with nearly 60 tons of gunpowder in storage. The mutiny was suppressed, with minimal losses for the troops loyal to St. Petersburg restoring the statehood.
New citizenship, Sveaborg sea fortress received in 1918, after Finland gained independence.
The modernization of the fortifications and armament of the fortress were supposed to help Finland feel safe from the long arm of its northern neighbor.
Sveaborg tourist route
Tourist tour of Sveaborg can take more than one day, therefore, in order to get the most complete and pleasant experience, it is recommended to use the services of a guide.
Connoisseurs and connoisseurs of fortress architecture strongly recommend visiting the attraction in late spring or summer. The entrance to the territory of the fortress is free, but you have to pay to visit the museums.
What can a tourist see in the Sveaborg fortress?
Today, the Sveaborg fortress is a unique, military monument and at the same time a magnificent open-air museum, included in the UNESCO lists.
The territory, which includes fortifications, forts and bastions, barracks, numerous museums, cafes and restaurants, is home to about a thousand permanent residents.
Among the operating state facilities, the Naval Academy should be noted. The territory belonging to sailors is closed for tourists, but there is always the opportunity to look with one eye and see firsthand that the Finnish Navy is provided with future admirals undergoing training. You will not be able to visit and inspect the state prison. However, prisoners serving sentences for non-serious crimes are likely to be met during excursions around Sveaborg. The prisoners are actively doing their part to maintain the World Heritage Site in an acceptable state.
The main entrance to Sveaborg is the arch in Rantakasarmi, right at the main pier. The wooden quarter behind the arch previously belonged to Russian merchants who lived on the island. There is a hostel in the quarter, which operates in the summer and is usually completely occupied by tourists.
The attraction of the quarter, recommended for visiting by guests, is the small and cozy cafe "Kahvihuone". The café's terrace offers an excellent view of the Sveaborg Church, built in 1854.
In Tyukistelahti, Artillery Bay is located Sveaborg History Museum, there is also an information center that provides information on current events in Sveaborg.
The oldest dock in Europe is located on Susisaari
The house-museum of Augustin Ehrenswärd, who designed and built this miracle of shipbuilding, is located opposite the dock, and not far from the museum is the house in which Vissarion Belinsky was born.
The highlight of Sveaborg is the submarine, which has its own name "VESSIKO". A lover of underwater transport can view the boat from the inside.
As a compulsory program, tourists are advised to visit the Maneyosi military museum, the customs museum, the Augusta gallery and, of course, the museum of dolls.
Theatrical performances are held in the open air, in warm weather.
Numerous cafes and restaurants hospitably await guests, prices are liberal and everyone can find a place for themselves based on their financial situation.
Lovers of the Middle Ages can visit the tunnel, where a truly unforgettable experience awaits you. But be careful, the tunnel is very slippery and cold, so dress warm and wear non-slip shoes.
