Finland was in those days the eastern province of the Swedish state. After northern Estonia, including Tallinn, became a part of Sweden in 1561, the rivalry between Tallinn and Helsinki ceased to matter in Gustav Vasa’s economic plans. When the city later was moved to the southernmost peninsula of the neighbouring area, it was only because there were more favourable conditions for a harbour. The original foundation was at the mouth of the Vantaa river, but the population eventually migrated somewhat to the west in order to take advantage of better sea-anchorage. Helsinki only became the capital of Finland in 1812 after Finland had been captured from Sweden by Russia.
Services
Education
In Helsinki there are eight universities (see the section “Universities” below) and some polytechnics.
Traffic
Mannerheimintie
In Helsinki, public transport is handled by HKL, the Helsinki City Transport. The public transport system consists of buses (slang: “ds”), trams (slang: “spra/spora”), Helsinki Metro and the commuter trains of VR. Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council handles the traffic to Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen.
Today, Helsinki is the only city in Finland to have trams or metro trains. There used to be two other cities in Finland with tram traffic: Turku and Viipuri (Vyborg). However, Turku abandoned trams in 1972 and Viipuri (at that time part of the Soviet Union instead of Finland) abandoned it in 1957.
Related Travel Information
Kauniainen (Grankulla in Swedish) is a small municipality of 8,426 inhabitants (as of March 2005) in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. Kauniainen is completely surrounded by the municipality of Espoo.
The local taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (15%), and so it tends to attract the highest earners, hence it is a generally wealthy place, and hence it can keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants.
Approximately 40% of the population have Swedish as their mother tongue; the rest are Finnish speakers. The dominant party in the town assembly has traditionally been the Swedish
Espoo (Esbo in Swedish) is a city on the Southern coast of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with Helsinki, Vantaa and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its western border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen. Other bordering municipalities are Nurmijärvi and Vihti in the north and Kirkkonummi in the west.
Espoo encompasses 528km², 312km² of which land. The current population is 227,472 (as of 2004-12-31).
Even though Espoo received its first permanent inhabitants during the 12th and 13th century, it would take until the 1950s for major developments to start. Due to its proximitity to Helsinki, Espoo soon
Hyvinkää (Hyvinge in Swedish) is a small town in the province of Uusimaa, approximately 50 km north of the capital Helsinki. The town was chartered in 1960. Hyvinkää belongs to the Province of Southern Finland. The population was 43,169 (in 2004).
Highways and rail connections make it one of the suburban commuter centers of Greater Helsinki. The city planning has had an emphasis on recreational facilities, acknowleding the fact that the modest city center cannot compete with the shops and boutiques of the capital.
History
Hyvinkää village was gradually formed in latter half of the 19th century. The construction of railways through Finland
Hanko, (Hangö in Swedish) in Finland is a small bilingual port town on the south coast of Finland, 130 kilometers west of Helsinki. The town was founded in 1874. Its current population is 10,008 (2002), with 44.8% being Finland-Swedish.
The Hanko Peninsula, on which the town is located, is the southernmost tip of continental Finland.
The Hangon Regatta has been a traditional fixture on the Finnish social scene. Many people who have very little or no interest in sailing, attend nevertheless in order to party and absorb the atmosphere.
Soviet naval base
Following the armistice of the Finnish Winter War on March 6, 1940,
Kaskinen (Kaskö in Swedish) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 1,558 (2003) and covers an area of 10.23 km² of which 0.15 km² is water. The population density is 152.3 inhabitants per km².
The municipality is bilingual, with majority being Finnish and minority Swedish speakers.
Kaskinen is the smallest town in Finland.
