Suomenlinna or Viapori is large
fortress island in front of
Helsinki.
The building was started at
1748 when
Finland was still part of
Sweden. In few decades Viapori got more inhabitants than in Helsinki were at that moment.
At 1808 Viapori surrendered without a single shot when Russians attacked Finland. Next year Finland became a part of
Russia.
During next hundred years on the island was Russian
garrison and there were built several
barracks, hospitals and a church.
"Where the Swedish grandee once strode
With silken hose and ceremonial sword,
Where imperial Russia
Received the key to Finland's door
With a roll of drums and a roar,
Where Britannia's ships of war
Hove to in line of battle,
Where the prisoner cursed his Finnish brother
For the right to die, diseased and hungry
In the land called home,
The grasses now nod in the spring wind
And plain folks queue to see a show."
Joe Brady
Nowadays Suomenlinna is a part of Helsinki with about 900 inhabitants and old fortress works as a museum with cannons and walls. There are also lots of restaurants, cafés and excellent brewery, and public transport between Helsinki center and Suomenlinna goes by ferries for appr. 1,7 eur per direction.
It's actually pretty cool place to have picnic on the Kustaanmiekka cape where old walls and cannons are still standing, Baltic sea shimmers and great ferries to Estonia and Sweden are running close...
Originally Mr. Sinebrychoff founded a brewery on this island at 1819 but later it was moved to Helsinki downtown...