In a photographic book about Pihlajamäki, stories told by residents guide the reader to everyday life in the suburbs of Helsinki. The book, which is called A Place with a View – Recollections of Pihlajamäki and published by Helsinki City Museum, and an exhibition compiled on its basis are part of the programme of Helsinki’s World Design Capital year.

In A Place with a View, Helsinki City Museum turns its gaze at the suburbs of Helsinki – precisely the place where ordinary people lead ordinary lives. Pihlajamäki, which turns 50 this year, is an example of an area that has been touched up close by a discussion about suburbs with negative undertones. The perspective of its residents, on the other hand, has often remained hidden. That is not the case this time as the residents’ own experience is the main subject in A Place with a View.

The Pihlajamäki suburb was built in the early 1960s as one of the first suburban entities where new prefabricated building techniques produced affordable quality construction near nature areas. The architecturally important area is protected in the town plan and has been appointed a nationally significant cultural environment.

The book, which is based on editor Kristiina Markkanen’s interviews and Lidia Tirri’s photographs, allows the residents to describe their everyday lives and homes behind the modern facades. Markkanen and Tirri wanted to find out what the residents of Pihlajamäki thought about their neighbourhood, which has aroused a lot of discussion.

The photographs in the book lead to spacious and well-lit homes where people obviously enjoy living, and the residents’ interviews open up a new perspective on architecture and urban planning. Professor Kirsi Saarikangas has written an article in the book about the places of memory in a suburban space. The texts in the book are in Finnish and English.

Exhibition in Pihlajamäki and Viikki and at Sederholm House

The book’s photographs and texts will be compiled into a photographic exhibition parts of which will be displayed at the Pihlajamäki shopping centre in February and at Viikki library in March–April. The entire exhibition will be on display at Sederholm House as of May. Then, even an accidental tourist can get to see how design surrounds the residents of Helsinki outside the city centre, too.

A Place with a View – Recollections of Pihlajamäki

At the Pihlajamäki shopping centre from 4 to 26 February 2012, Wed–Thu 1–8 pm, Sat–Sun 11 am–5 pm.
At Viikki library from 8 March to 18 April 2012, Mon–Thu 9 am–8 pm, Fri 9 am–6 pm, Sat 10 am–4 pm.
At Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18, from 12 May to 26 August 2012, Wed–Sun 11 am–5 pm, Thu 11 am–7 pm.

Kristiina Markkanen and Lidia Tirri: A Place with a View – Recollections of Pihlajamäki. Helsinki City Museum 2011. 128 pages, bound. ISBN 978-952-272-101-3. Price €28 (incl. VAT).

The price is €28 (incl. VAT). The book is available for sale at the Museum Shop, Sofiankatu 4.

A quarter of the world's population live below the poverty line, but what does it mean? The new online exhibition Explore Poverty hopes to clarify the concept of poverty.Explore-poverty.org is the result of international cooperation between Helsinki City Museum, Musée d’histoire de la ville de Luxembourg, Minnesota Historical Society, DASA Arbeitswelt Ausstellnung and Köln International School of Design.

    www.explore-poverty.org

Helsinki City Museum will open its Christmas season in the traditional way on the first Advent Sunday 27 November 2011. In Sederholm House, the whole family can prepare for Christmas in the manner of Doghill. Burgher’s House and Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum will open bedecked in their Christmas décor. The traditional carol play will bring us Christmas spirit yet again. The event is free of charge, as the City Museum always is.

The main building of the City Museum at Sofiankatu 4, open between 11 am and 5 pm, is covered by scaffolds due to roof renovation work and the exhibition halls are closed due to exhibition change. Traditional Christmas spirit can, however, be enjoyed at Kino Engel 2, watching documentaries of Christmas celebrations in Helsinki from decades gone by. Christmas discounts will begin at the museum shop, even before Christmas so that gifts oozing with the history of Helsinki can find their way under many a Christmas tree.

Sederholm House at Aleksanterinkatu 18 is the perfect setting for a Christmas family event with the Omens and predictions at Doghill exhibition based on children’s books by Mauri Kunnas. Between noon and 3 pm you will have the chance to meet an old-fashioned Father Christmas, make Christmas decorations, decorate gingerbread as well as sing and play to Christmas tunes performed by the Sakarat Choir. The traditional City Museum’s carol play by the HOL Choir will take place in the courtyard of Sederholm House at 1 pm. There will be a raffle for a packed Christmas gift book basket at the Advent event.

Burgher’s House at Kristianinkatu 12 is a feast for the senses taking you back to the Christmas days of yore. The oldest wooden house in the central city area, over 190 years old, will take us back to Christmas as it was in the 1860s. In the opening Advent event at Burgher’s House from noon to 4 pm, guides will tell about how Christmas was celebrated in the past. The traditional carol play will take place in the courtyard at 2:30 pm. The house will remain in its Christmas decor until 8 January 2012.

Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum at Tuomarinkyläntie 7 will be filled with Christmas spirit as the halls of the Elegance exhibition present the period history of Helsinki. You will have the chance to decorate gingerbread between 2 pm and 4 pm, and the day will end at the Manor’s main entrance with a carol play at 4 pm.

TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS SEASON OPENING

IN THE HELSINKI CITY MUSEUM

ON THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Sofiankatu 4, open 11 am – 5 pm

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING AND DOCUMENTARY FILMS ON YULETIDE

12 am – 3 pm films on Helsinki Christmas traditions, Kino Engel

                      Christmas sale at the Museum Shop

Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18, open 11 am – 5 pm

Children’s exhibition: Omens and predictions at Doghill

FAMILY PROGRAM HOSTED BY TRADITIONAL FINNISH SANTA

12 am – 3 pm traditional gingerbread decoration

                     Christmas crafts for children

                     Christmas sing-a-long in Finnish

1 pm             traditional carol play in the courtyard

Burgher’s House, Kristianinkatu 12, open 11 am – 5 pm

A BOURGEOIS HOME OF THE 1860S DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS

12 am – 4 pm 19^th century Christmas traditions from Helsinki

2.30 pm        traditional carol play in the courtyard

Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum open 11 am – 5 pm

Exhibition: Elegance

CHRISTMAS IN A MANOR
2 pm – 4 pm  traditional gingerbread decoration

4 pm              traditional carol play in the courtyard

F R E E    E N T R Y

Sederholm House, the oldest building in downtown Helsinki, hosts a children’s exhibition based on the charming dog illustrations by Mauri Kunnas from 1 October 2011 to 29 January 2012. The exhibition invites children of all ages to the rural Finland of the mid-1800s. The exhibition texts are available in Finnish and Swedish.

This exhibition is the first children’s exhibition in the Sederholm House. It leads up to the end of the year 2012, when the oldest house in Helsinki will be dedicated to the youngest people in Helsinki. Sederholm House will then be a permanent home to various exhibitions and other activities for children.

Sederholmin house 
Aleksanterinkatu 18, 
tel. (09) 3103 6529.

Open
1.10.2011–29.1.2012 
Wed–Sun 11–17, 
Thu 11–19.

FREE ENTRY
 

The Helsinki Horizons exhibition in Sofiankatu 4 is open 9–22. Movies on Helsinki are shown in Kino Engel all day.

The Women's Rooms exhibition in the Sederholm house is open 11–22.

The Out to Sea exhibition in the Hakasalmi villa is open 11–22. Music at 19, 20 and 21.

Family-friendly programme at Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum 17–20. The Aarne Alligaattori band plays music for children at 19, and night music is played in the manor at 20. The Stylish exhibition is open 11–21.

F R E E    E N T R Y

The City Museum offers lots of fun for people enjoying the summer in Helsinki. We have not forgotten country cousins visiting the city or foreign summer guests either.

The last summer of the basic exhibition at Sofiankatu 4

The Helsinki City Museum’s main building exhibition Helsinki Horizons is on display for the last summer. The exhibition offers a view over 450 years of the city’s history and is on display until 28 August 2011. You still have time to see the Työmies pack of cigarettes or a genuine 1990s telephone card before the exhibition closes and work starts on a new exhibition. Helsinki Horizons is an excellent means for residents and tourists alike to explore the history of the capital in a nutshell.

Nostalgic Helsinki-themed films are being shown in Kino Engel 2 all summer. The cinema provides an excellent refuge from hot weather for foreign guests especially on summer Saturdays when the programme focuses on English-language films.

Perfect summer gifts can be found at the Museum Shop, even for those who already have everything. How about a cast-iron herring pan or a barometer based on an 18^th-century model?

Picture Paths exhibition on electrical cabinets

Museum experiences are now also available outdoors: the Picture Paths exhibition spreads into the city streets for the summer. Old photographs attached to electrical cabinets can be viewed online and at the following locations: Katajanokka, Runeberginkatu, Helsinginkatu, Länsi-Pasila, Malmi and Herttoniemi.

Summer museums are open

The Worker Housing Museum and Burgher’s House, both summer museums of the City Museum, are open until early September. In the cosy Worker Housing Museum you can explore the history of everyday life in nine small stove rooms that have been furnished as homes of the people who lived there during different periods. New this summer at the museum is a historical flower bed, where traditional ornamental plants of a worker’s garden flourish.

The Burgher’s House showcases the middle-class life of the 1860s in the heart of Kruununhaka. The oldest surviving wooden house still in its original location in the central city area is certainly a sight worth seeing.

Take a trip to Tuomarinkylä Manor

The Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum located in northern Helsinki is a great destination for a summer trip. The Elegance exhibition showcases items and interiors from baroque to functionalism. After exploring the exhibition, you can have a picnic in the park surrounding the manor.

Tram Museum is open every summer day

The Tram Museum located in Töölö presents the history of trams from a passenger’s perspective. Tourists like to stamp their tickets with the old stamping machine and sit in an old, nostalgic tram in order to soak up the atmosphere of days gone by.

The Out to Sea exhibition on the history of sailing at the Hakasalmi Villa as well as the Women’s Rooms – Lives and Actions exhibition on the Finnish women's movement at Sederholm House are open all summer.

We look forward to seeing you at the City Museum!

Picture Paths is a new kind of photography exhibition that takes viewers through evolving streetscapes in Helsinki.

Helsinki City Museum's historical photographs show the city and its residents in the exact location where each photo was originally taken. The photos, attached to ordinary electrical cabinets, form a path through the history of six different city districts.

Picture Paths can be found in Katajanokka, on Runeberginkatu in Töölö, in Länsi-Pasila, in Malmi, on Helsinginkatu in Kallio and in western Herttoniemi.

Welcome to Picture Paths!

The Helsinki City Museum historical café is here again! This year, the pastries, cakes and biscuits served in the café have been chosen from the cookbooks of Anna Olsoni, the founder of home economics teaching in Finland. Café Olsoni is located in the oldest building in downtown Helsinki, Sederholm House.

Have coffee in the style of your grand-grandmother and try the delicious Lübeck Coffee Cake or Mam’s Spiced Cake, or even the politically charged Fennoman biscuit. In Café Olsoni you can also listen to live music from the turn of the 20^th century or visit the exhibition Women’s Rooms – Lives and Actions.

Café Olsoni
Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18
4th–12th June 2011
11a.m.–6p.m.
FREE ENTRY

Having Coffee with Anna Olsoni

Drinking coffee became a daily custom in Finland during the 1800s, also among the common people. Serving wheat buns and sugar became more common as the standard of living improved toward the end of the century. The higher classes expected a wide selection of treats to complement their coffee sessions, and the bun was introduced to common people as well. Whilst home-made pastries were held in high regard, confectioners' delicacies were mainly reserved to the wealthy city residents.

Anna Olsoni's first cookery book from 1892 taught people to prepare everyday, healthy and affordable food and offered only a few recipes for pastries. The sequel, published in 1901, included a wealth of recipes for cakes and biscuits previously enjoyed only by the gentlefolk. With her second book, Anna Olsoni uncovered the secrets of fine coffee treats to the masses, making them a part of the traditional Finnish coffee drinking customs.

Olsoni adjusted her recipes to contemporary preferences and the conditions in Finland. The use of spices was gentle, as excessive seasoning was seen as unhealthy. Fruits and berries were used mainly for jams, as the Finnish season for fresh ingredients was quite short.

Olsoni’s recipes combine the old with the new.  The concise recipes make use of accurate measurements and apply the recently adopted metric system. Nevertheless, old traditions show here and there. Old measurements and methods are still visible in the more traditional recipes. The ingredients may surprise today, as eggs used to be smaller and some spices and leavening agents were different, for example. Due to the wood stoves used in Olsoni’s time, the stated cooking temperatures and times are vague at best. Today’s bakers will have to scratch their heads for a while before they can prepare treats à la Anna Olsoni!

Anna Olsoni-Quist (1864–1943)
Founder of Home Economics instruction in Finland

In the 19th century, family and home came to be regarded as the core of society, on which rested the flourishing of the entire nation. Women's work as home keepers developed into an honourable mission requiring skills and knowledge, and household management was raised to a new level, assisted by science. In Great Britain and US, chemistry-based home economics was developed and began to be taught in schools.

In 1890, The Association of Women in Finland sent Anna Olsoni, a daughter of a vicar and well-versed in home keeping, to study home economics instruction in Stockholm, London and Edinburgh, and to pursue a degree in home economics teaching in Glasgow. Upon her return in 1891, the Helsinki Pedagogical School of Cooking was founded and she was appointed director. 

In 1892, Olsoni wrote the first textbook for home economics in Finland. The comprehensive book covered the basics of chemistry, nutrition, handling foodstuffs, cleaning, and clothes maintenance. Olsoni presented in precise modern measurements recipes for basic dishes, emphasizing healthiness as well as saving time and money. In 1901 Olsoni published a sequel, which also included recipes for more sophisticated dishes. Both cookbooks remained popular for years.

When she married in 1894, Anna Olsoni left her position and moved to Vyborg. The mother of seven taught home economics and worked as the first food reporter in Finland. She was also active in the Martha movement, in the Soldiers’ Home Organisation, and in the political party Young Finns. Olsoni represented the party as the first woman on the city council of Vyborg from 1920 to 1928.

Chamber music

In Café Olsoni, young musicians from the Degree Programme in Music at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and the Sibelius Academy will perform chamber music that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Concerts daily at 12 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Coffee in Women’s Rooms

A coffee break at Café Olsoni can be combined with a visit in the centennial exhibition of the National Council of Women of Finland. “Women's Rooms – Lives and Actions” presents Finnish women’s organisations and a century of their hard work for equality, a room of their own and a rightful place in the society. Many bold and innovative Finnish women and their accomplishments are presented in the Sederholm House, built in 1757, which is the oldest building in downtown Helsinki.

The Helsinki City Museum will open an exhibition titled “Out to Sea – 150 Years of Sailing in Helsinki ” at the Hakasalmi Villa, next door to Finlandia Hall, on 27 May 2011. 

The exhibition will look at the maritime past of Helsinki from the perspective of yachting as a pastime. Besides boats, yacht clubs, sailors and boat races, the endangered underwater nature of the Baltic Sea, whose cleanliness sailors are working to improve, will be an important topic. The exhibition will also feature the origin of the Finnish blue cross flag, first used by a yacht club.

Yachting became more popular on the coasts of Finland in the mid-1800s alongside with practical seafaring related to fishing, trade and traffic. As elsewhere in Europe, sailing enthusiasts started yacht clubs that have, from the very beginning, promoted seafaring skills, pressed for improvements in the preconditions for sailing and organised sailing competitions. Yachting expanded widely in the society, crossing class and language barriers, and as early as the end of the 1800s, working class sailing clubs were established.

“Out to Sea” will explore yachting from many viewpoints. A central role is naturally played by yachts themselves, which will be presented through drawings, scale models and half hull models as well as photographs. The exhibition will feature famous sailors, boat races and Helsinki-based yacht clubs, among which the main role will be played by the city’s oldest yacht club, Nyländska Jaktklubben, which is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. NJK will bring a wide array of objects previously unseen by the general public, such as trophies, to Hakasalmi Villa.

The pictures in the exhibition will show sailing fashion trends and the architecture of the elegant yacht club pavilions. The international community and culture of sailors will become familiar even to landlubbers, who will get the chance to try how it feels to sit in a dinghy and how to navigate at sea.

The exhibition will include a glance at maritime Helsinki, life in the Archipelago as well as the Baltic Sea, seen above water, when gliding on the waves, and beneath the surface. Old photographs and works of art will tell about the fishermen and the life in villas in Helsinki. Besides photographs, you will get to know more about the local underwater environment through aquariums. Today’s sailors are worried about the deterioration of the Baltic Sea, whose prevention will be presented in the exhibition.

The exhibition partners of the City Museum include Helsinki yacht clubs, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the John Nurminen Foundation. The Museum has prepared the exhibition by, among other things, documenting the sailing culture in Helsinki with the help of maritime history students of the University of Helsinki as well as by photographing the activities, boats and buildings of yacht clubs.

Out to Sea
150 Years of Sailing in Helsinki
Hakasalmi Villa, Mannerheimintie 13d, tel. (09) 3107 8519.

Open 27 May 2011–8 January 2012 
Wed–Sun 11 am – 5 pm, Thu 11 am – 7 pm. 
FREE ENTRY.

Come and celebrate the 
100-year-old City Museum!

This year, Helsinki City Museum will reach the age of 100 years. To celebrate, the museum will have a party on and around Senate Square on Sunday 15 May 2011 from noon till 4pm.

There will be history for every taste: historical outfits and dances from years gone by, classic automobiles, a 1700^th century shop, clowns and giants. The Kengurumeiniki band will play for children, and after that a big ball will be held on Senate Square. 

The public is invited to dress up in the styles of the past and join the old-time street life. Admission is free, as it is to all City Museum exhibitions and events.

Senate Square
12 pm  Opening parade & opening speech
– Deputy Lord Mayor Tuula Haatainen
12.40   Two clowns and a door
1 pm    Children’s concert by Kengurumeininki
2 pm    Two clowns and a door
2.45     Ballroom dancing outdoors, accompanied by the Sininen huvimaja band

Historical car show in cooperation with Mobilia Museum

Helsinki City Hall, Banquet Room
A Dance Through the History of Helsinki
the dance potpourri begins at 12.30 and 2 pm
Renaissance and Baroque Dances   
– La Porte du Temps
Dances from the 18^th century   
– Menuett Akademien (Sweden)
Dances from the 19^th century   
– Seurasaaren Kansantanssijat
Dances from the 1910–20s   
– Seurasaaren Kansantanssijat & Sakilaiset Orchestra

Sofiankatu
12.40   Helsinki Police Street Band
13.50   Helsinki Police Street Band
Giants from Dance Theatre Hurjaruuth

Sederholm House
open 11 am – 5 pm
18^th century style shopping
Exhibition Women's Rooms – Lives and Actions

Sofiankatu 4
open 11 am – 5 pm
Films about springtime Helsinki at Kino Engel
Exhibition Helsinki Horizons

Helsinki City Museum is seeking a newly designed everyday object through an open design competition. The object will be sold at the museum’s shop. The competition is open through June 15, 2011.

The object should be related to Helsinki’s history but represent contemporary design. As such it should be linked to Helsinki’s past and present. It should be suitable for the museum shop’s product range. It should be aesthetically of high quality, usable in everyday situations, and suitable for mass production. 

The object will be available at the shop by the opening of the Made in Helsinki 1700-2012 exhibition, which will open at the Hakasalmi Villa City Museum branch on June 12, 2012.  

The competition will be open to individuals and teams. The proposals should present the design concept, the materials used, and the intended application. The proposals can be submitted as conceptual drawings in scale. They should include a written description no longer than one A4 sized page.

The chair of the competition jury is Tiina Merisalo, Director of Helsinki City Museum, and the other jury members are Kari Korkman, Director, Helsinki Design Week, and Minna Sarantola-Weiss, Research Manager, City Museum. The winner is announced at the Helsinki Book Fair on Friday, October 28, 2011. The prize is €1,500.

Made in Helsinki 1700-2012 will present the historical origins of Helsinki handicraft and design. The exhibition will celebrate Helsinki’s World Design Capital year and Helsinki’s bicentennial, which coincide in 2012. The exhibits will display skillfully crafted works by artisans and everyday industrial products from the last 300 years. The City Museum wants the new product to fit into this tradition.

Entries to the competition should be addressed to Päivi Makkonen, Helsinki City Museum, Sofiankatu 4, P.O. Box 4300, FI-00099 City of Helsinki, Finland, delivered no later than 16:00 (4 PM) on June 15, 2011. Entries can also be emailed to Päivi Makkonen at paivi.makkonen@hel.fi (maximum message size is 2 MB). The entries should include the designer’s full contact information.

For further information, contact Päivi Makkonen by email.

Helsinki City Museum has published some material on the Internet to serve as a source of inspiration for the designers (the accompanying text is in Finnish). The pictures included come from the museum’s collections.

The National Council of Women of Finland celebrates its 100th anniversary with the exhibition “Women’s Rooms – Lives and Actions”, which tells the story of gender equality in Finland. It shows the decades of hard work by women’s organisations to provide Finnish women with a room of their own, a rightful place in society. Completed in 1757, the Sederholm House is the oldest building in Helsinki city centre. Its atmospheric rooms now present both well-known and forgotten women and their courageous actions to improve the position of women.

In the late 19^th century, Finnish women started to get organised, establishing associations aiming at the improvement of women’s circumstances and rights in various areas of life and society. The persistent work of women’s organisations soon began to bear fruit. In 1906, Finnish women became the first in Europe to be granted the right to vote and stand for election. In the first decades of independence, women became free of their husbands’ control, improved their education and advanced their careers. The welfare of mothers and children was supported through a number of reforms.

Gender equality progressed quickly in the decades after the war, particularly from the 1970s onwards. Women’s opportunities to work were increased by the improved availability of contraception and abortion as well as day care, and gradually all professions opened to women, including clergy and military positions. In families, traditional parental roles started to bend. Equality was reinforced by many laws, and in politics women advanced to the top of society.

In the 2010s, complete equality is still some distance away and the work of women’s organisations remains important. Internationalisation brings new challenges. Finnish women’s organisations are striving to help female immigrants as well as women in the developing countries towards equality.

The exhibition “Women’s Rooms – Lives and Actions” opens new angles to the different development phases of gender equality in Finland by presenting the work of women’s organisations and a number of women who toiled hard for their rights. The script of the exhibition was written by Maritta Pohls, historian and PhD. The ingenious exhibition architecture was created by Tarja Kunttunen. The exhibition is accompanied by a number of events produced by women’s organisations. More information is available on the website of the National Council of Women of Finland at www.naisjarjestot.fi. The hostess of the exhibition is the Helsinki City Museum, which is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year just like the National Council of Women of Finland.
 

Pictures are available at www.hel2.fi/kaumuseo/lehdistokuvat/naisten_huoneet

Women’s Rooms – Lives and Actions
Helsinki City Museum, Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18, tel. (09) 3103 6529.
Open 9 March.– 28 August 2011 Wed–Sun 11 am – 5 pm, Thu 11 am – 7 pm.

FREE ENTRY

After Kari Hakli and Signe Brander, the Helsinki City Museum continues its series of highly popular photograph exhibitions in Villa Hakasalmi in October 2010 by introducing photographs of Helsinki in 1969–1979 by Simo and Eeva Rista. Having diligently recorded everyday life on the streets of their ever-changing home city, the vast production of the photographers offers a nostalgic journey to the 1970s in the Asphalt and Sunflowers exhibition in Villa Hakasalmi between 14 October 2010 and 27 February 2011. At the same time, a web exhibition and a photograph book carrying the same name are published with a wider photograph selection.

Specialising in architecture, photographer Simo Rista got in the 1960s bored with his heavy photograph equipment, got himself a lighter camera and directed it from the buildings of Helsinki to people and the bustle of the streets. For Simo Rista, recording the everyday life of city dwellers became a fun hobby which he then shared with photographer Eeva Rista, joining him on the photographic excursions in 1970. They always kept their cameras on them, and between the years 1969 and 1987, they took approximately 60,000 photographs of Helsinki. The photos were appended to the City Museum collections in 2008.

From the shadows of buildings as well as from streets and courtyards, Simo Rista and Eeva Rista found people’s Helsinki, which they shot on grass-root level. One of the most touching themes in their photos is the children’s world at a time when children were still allowed to play freely in the courtyards of the stone city and in suburban waste lands. A humane viewpoint is also distinctive in their news photography: in a festive monument unveiling ceremony, they pick children and elderly people, tired of the ceremony, as their objects.

The Ristas strived to depict the real Helsinki as honestly and bluntly as possible. Their aim was not to collect prizes at exhibitions but to use photography to fight for what was important to them. Their photos portray the contemporary ideologies and social phenomena that agitated people’s minds: demonstrations, traffic jams and fierce changes in the city. The frantic debate also led to positive results, for example, in the Helsinki city planning, which the Ristas helped with their photos.

The modern viewers will focus their attention on the nowadays lost phenomena that are present in Simo Rista’s and Eeva Rista’s photos: telephone booths, stone base shops, demolished buildings, mini-skirts and fashion from the olden days. On the other hand, one can recognise familiar characteristics of Helsinki: the stone building blocks in the city centre, wooded suburbs, the maritime climate with its fresh summer winds and slushy winters. The sincere joy of children has not changed in 40 years, either.

Audio guide, book and web exhibition

Over 150 photos are on display in Villa Hakasalmi. You can get deeper insight to many of them by lending an audio guide in Finnish and Swedish, consisting of the photographers’ memories from their photographic excursions. To continue the time travel to Helsinki in the 1970s, explore the by-products that expand the contents of the exhibition, such as the photograph book in Finnish and Swedish and the web exhibition in Finnish comprising almost 9,000 photos at www.asfalttiajaauringonkukkia.fi.

Asphalt and sunflowers
Simo Rista’s and Eeva Ristas’s photographs from Helsinki 1969-1979
Hakasalmi Villa, Mannerheimtie 13 D
tel. (09) 3107 8519.
Open 14.10.2010–27.2.2011 
Wed–Sun 11 am – 5 pm
Thu 11 am – 7 pm.
FREE ENTRY

Pictures are available at www.hel2.fi/kaumuseo/lehdistokuvat/asfalttia_ja_auringonkukkia

The new book Foto Signe Brander complements the popular exhibition in the Hakasalmi villa. The lively photos taken a century ago still fascinate the habitants of today’s Helsinki. The people play an important role in Brander’s photos. The photos show you the whole spectrum of life in Helsinki: work, everyday life, leisure and celebrations.

Helsinki City Museum, Sofiankatu 4, open until 10 pm
Exhibition: HELSINKI HORIZONS
at 7, 8 Helsinki songs by a female a cappella quartet.
and 9 pm

Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18, open until 10 pm
Exhibition: NIGHT
5–10 pm Helsinki after dark: historical bedrooms, night work and night life, frightening shadows and dream worlds.

Hakasalmi Villa, Mannerheimintie 13 D, open until 10 pm
Exhibition: FOTO SIGNE BRANDER
at 6 pm Hämäläis-Osakunnan Laulajat, conducted by Esko Kallio, performs romantic Finnish music for mixed choir.
5–10 pm Helsinki of the early 1900s seen by a female photographer,
guides available for answering your questions.

Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum, open until 9 pm
Exhibition: ELEGANCE
Children’s Museum, open until 8 pm
Exhibition: MAMMOTHS AND GUINEA-PIGS
5–8 pm Programme for the whole family in the yard: face painting, balloons, horse rides
7 pm Jytäjyrsijät band plays real rock for children in the yard
8 pm Katariina Saarikoski, cello, and Pauli Lamppu, guitar, give an intimate chamber concert in the manor house parlour.

F R E E    E N T R Y

The historical cafés hosted at the Sederholm House during the Helsinki Week have been wildly popular in previous summers. Consequently, Helsinki City Museum and Palmia Meeting and Banquet Services offer also this year a café event. This time, it is themed around Count Augustin Ehrensvärd (1710–1772), the founder of the Suomenlinna maritime fortress, who is celebrating his 300th anniversary. 

A variety of pastries from his youth are served in Café Ehrensvärd, based on 300-year-old recipes. They reveal forgotten taste combinations that are surprisingly fresh and original. Historically inspired pastries, the atmosphere of the oldest house in Helsinki and appropriate music take you from the coffee table to the past centuries.

Café Ehrensvärd offers a variety of typical pastries of the early 18th century, based on old Swedish cookery books. They tell which spices were in fashion then and open an exotic culinary world, interestingly different from our modern taste. You might not expect to find mace, cinnamon and currant in a meat pasty. Chervil, the herb with a subtle liquorice tinge, lends a unique taste to a hit pastry from the 18th century. Our ancient lemon pie has a very strong flavour, but in our gooseberry pie the tart taste of the berries is softened with almond. Ehrensvärd's favourite tree was the common hazel, which is why his celebratory tart packs the crunchy punch of hazelnuts flavoured with rosewater.

The recipes have been chosen and interpreted by Jere Jäppinen, a curator of the Helsinki City Museum. Chef Antti Mikkelä from Palmia has adapted them to a modern kitchen.

During the Helsinki Week June 7–13 2010 Café Ehrensvärd and the Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 18, are open daily 11am–6pm. Young musicians from the Degree Programme in Music at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences will perform daily chamber music that was popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Before or after you enjoy the delicacies of Café Ehrensvärd, take a look at the exhibition Night in the Sederholm House. It tells the story of the City of Helsinki in the dark moments of the night. The entry is free.

When coffee came to Finland

Coffee drinking, originally adopted from the Turks, became common among the higher-class folk of Western and Central Europe in the late 17th century. It was then that Europe saw the establishment of the first coffee houses, where men would converge to discuss politics. The fashionable new beverage soon made its way to Sweden, too, and it was not long before the gentlefolk in Stockholm, and to some extent in Turku and Helsinki as well, were smitten with the exotic drink. Coffee drinking spread gradually, but it was not until 1773 that the first coffee house in Helsinki, and presumably the entire Finland, was opened.

The new expensive and rare drink was originally enjoyed once a week as is, without any accompanying edibles. However, the contemporary cuisine included many sweet and savoury pastries, which were served at feasts alongside other dishes. Cookbooks published in the Swedish Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries included a wide variety of recipes for pasties, pies, biscuits, doughnuts and waffles. The preparation of fancy pastries naturally required special tools: doughnut and tart pans, biscuit moulds and waffle irons, which could also be found in the kitchens of wealthy Helsinkians as early as the turn of the 18th century.

Payments in cash only.

Further information
Helsinki City Museum: curator Jere Jäppinen, tel. (09) 3103 6505 or jere.jappinen(at)hel.fi

Sofiankatu is one of the oldest streets in Helsinki. The City Museum, located there, celebrates with its neighbours yearly the name-day of their home street with a historical spring festival.

Programme
12.00 opening of the Sofia’s Day event
Sofia’s proclamation - Mayor Abraham Wetter from the 1730s
opening speech – President of the City Gov. Risto Rautava
parade of historical dwellers of Helsinki on the red carpet
12.30 pm brass septet of the Helsinki Police Dep. performs in the street
13.00 pm La Fiamma di Danza performs renaissance dances in the street
13.30 pm brass septet of the Helsinki Police Dep. performs in the street 14.00 pm wind trio performs Renaissance music in the street
14.20 pm breakdance by Floorphilia in the street
14.40 pm La Fiamma di Danza performs renaissance dances in the street
15.00 pm parade of historical dwellers of Helsinki on the red carpet
15.20 pm wind trio performs Renaissance music in the street
15.40 pm breakdance by Floorphilia in the street

Helsinki City Museum, Sofiankatu 4
Exhibition Helsinki Horizons and comment exhibition Encounters,
vintage films on Helsinki in spring and summer
shown nonstop in Kino Engel

Street Museum, Sofiankatu
Historical rendezvous, balloons, barrel organ

Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 16–18
Exhibition Night

FREE ENTRANCE

The third part of the historical recordings of Helsinki City Museum, Liebeslied – songs from the Romanticism’s Helsinki, offers a rare collection of lieds, that were popular in Helsinki during the 19th century. Young musicians of Metropolia college bring alive these songs popular in the noble houses of the Romanticism. The themes of the songs vary from happiness to sorrow and from romantic love to the love of the father land. The record was published on February, 7th 2010.

Helsinki City Museum reached all time record-breaking number of visitors last year. The over all number of visitors was 194 413, which means a 26 % growth compared to previous year and even 168 % growth compared to the year 2007. Many interesting exhibitions as well as the free entry from the beginning of the year 2008 got the museum many new friends.

For more than a century, the Helsinki City Museum has been collecting objects and art related to the City of Helsinki and its residents. Comprehensive, well-researched and organised and appropriately stored collections lay the foundation for museum work.

The Friends of the Helsinki City Museum society aims to support the work of the museum and increase the residents’ awareness of the museum's activities and the history of the city. The Friends of the Museum have donated several interesting objects and works of art to the collections of the museum. The City Museum would like to thank the Friends for their donations, some of which, from 1994 to 2009, are included in this exhibition.

Street Museum, Sofiankatu

12 am
Aira Samulin, a famous Finnish dancer, gives an opening speech and lights the Christmas decorations in the style of the 1930's
Traditional Finnish Santa and old times' Helsinki dwellers
Dancing Christmas gnomes

***

Helsinki City Museum, Sofiankatu 4, open 11 am - 5 pm
Exhibition Helsinki in the Horizon

12 am -3 pm
Traditional Christmas ginerbread decoration, 2nd floor
Documentary films on Helsinki Christmas traditions, Kino Engel
Christmas sale at the Museum Shop
Café Engel  Christmas treats in an 18th century shop, 1st floor

12.30 am, 1.30 pm, 2.30 pm
Christmas sing-a-long, 2nd floor

***

Sederholm House, Aleksanterinkatu 16-18, open 11 pm - 5 pm
New exhibition: Night

1 pm
Traditional carol play in the courtyard

***

Burgher's House, Kristianinkatu 12, open 11 am - 5 pm
A bourgeois home of the 1860¨s decorated for Christmas

12 am - 4 pm
19 th century Christmas traditions from Helsinki

2.30 pm
Traditional carol play in the courtyard

***

Tuomarinkylä Manor Museum nad Children's Museum, open 11 am - 5 pm
Exhibitions: Elegance & Mammoths and Guinea-Pigs

1 pm - 4 pm
Traditional Christmas crafts for the whole family

4 pm
Traditional carol play in the courtyard

***

FREE ENTRANCE

Helsinki City Museum opens an exhibition called Night at the Sederholm House in the corner of Senaatintori Square on Friday, 20th November 2009. The exhibition tells the story of the City of Helsinki in the dark moments of the night. In the dim rooms of the old merchant house, people get a chance to examine the old bedrooms of Helsinkians, gaze at the stars, look in on the night workers’ life, celebrate in the party atmosphere, interpret dreams and get scared by the ghosts that appear in the dark. The Night exhibition is a relaxing and refreshing time travel to the City of Helsinki at night.

The history of night time is a fascinating, but not so well-examined subject. In centuries past, before electric lighting, the difference between night and day was very clear. The lack of light hindered people’s activities markedly, thus it was considered wise to stay at home at night. There were a lot of dangers lurking in the darkness – when walking in the murky streets of Helsinki, there was a danger of slipping into a mud-hole or even of dropping into a well. The night hid mysterious powers, whose signs were feared – was that a wolf howling in the distance? a ghost banging in the corners? and what was that ghostly glow in the church window? What about dreams, did they reveal predictions of the future?

At nightfall, most Helsinkians have, through different eras and centuries, gone to bed. Extremely wealthy mayor, Abraham Wetter, fell into his soft feather mattress and drew up the curtains of his four-poster bed after a visit to the commode chair in the 1730s. In the beginning of the 20th century, grand Art Nouveau furniture with beds, dressing tables and bedside tables graced the intimate bedrooms of the parents of upper class families, whilst at the same time the working class were sleeping very tightly in their stove rooms on Murphy beds or bunk beds.

There have always been those who like to stay awake at night, too. Long before taxi queues, the customers of Helsinki’s pubs were getting carried away with singing, fighting or generally causing trouble on their way home. The same goes for night work: guards and fire fighters have been guarding, bakers baking, factories running, hospitals offering emergency services and newspapers have been being printed and distributed. The night’s starry sky has offered a map to the sailors, a fascinating topic for astronomers to examine and dreams for dreamers.

Electric light has dimmed the starry sky of Helsinki, but with the help of electricity, the city now glows brighter and busier at night than ever before. The darkness does not limit our activities anymore, and in many people’s lives, night and day have lost their meaning. Work and fun fill the night and most can only dream of a good night’s sleep nowadays. Nevertheless, the fear of the dark streets and parks has not vanished, even though the night is now much brighter.

Several different objects, from chamber pots to water colour paintings, have been chosen for the Helsinki City Museum’s Night exhibition at Sederholm House. Extensive photographic documentation of the night life and night-time work of Helsinki was part of the preparation work for the exhibition. The architecture of the inventive exhibition at Sederholm House generates a magical atmosphere, which brings a feel of the night’s charm even to daytime.

Sederholm House
Aleksanterinkatu 18
tel. (09) 3103 6529

Open 20 November 2009–29 August 2010
Wed–Sun 11 am – 5 pm
Thu 11 am – 7 pm
FREE ENTRY

Press photos 

The Helsinki City Museum exhibition entitled Foto Signe Brander opened on Wednesday, 14 October, at the Hakasalmi Villa. Entrance to the exhibition is free.

The exhibition will feature a wide selection of lively images, which were shot by this beloved master photographer. They capture the Helsinki of a hundred years ago, from the main streets in the city centre to residents’ backyards in the outskirts. With modern technology, new details on the old glass plate negatives have been brought out wherein even the already familiar images offer one the joy of discovery. 

Signe Brander (1869–1942) is unquestionably one of the most renowned and beloved photographers of Helsinki. The pictures that she shot from 1907 to 1913 are among the best and most used documentation of Helsinki of that era. In 2004, Helsinki City Museum published a book entitled “Signe Brander, Helsingin valokuvaaja” (Signe Brander, Photographer of Helsinki). An edition of 15,000 copies was published and later sold out, which is an exceptionally high number for a photography book in Finland.

Signe Brander’s images of Helsinki were first exhibited at the Hakasalmi Villa in 1909. The Foto Signe Brander exhibition opened at the Villa a century later, on 14 October 2009, and will showcase a cross section of her Helsinki photography. 79 images, attesting Brander’s versatility in documenting city life, have been selected from the collection of 900 photographs. In addition to the familiar street and yard views, the exhibition also features more rarely seen city landscapes undergoing transition in the early 20th century.

The old glass plate negatives were digitalised into high quality image files in order to compile this exhibition. This ensured that even the familiar photographs would feature new details that await discovery by the visitors. The large print size emphasises the characteristics of Signe Brander’s photography: the presence of life and people in the city. 

Brander did not settle for documenting buildings that were demolished and landscapes erased; instead, she strove to capture onto the glass plates the everyday lives of the people in Helsinki. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why her photographs have not lost their charm and appeal over the decades.

Appreciation for photography in museums continues to grow and visitors are interested both in modern photography art as well as old, classic images. The extensive photographic collection of the Helsinki City Museum has plenty to offer in the form of interesting themes for photography exhibitions. Even though modern technology has made it possible to view images on the computer screen at home, real justice is only done to the photographs when they are exhibited as proper prints in the spacious rooms of the Hakasalmi Villa.

Brander’s photographs in a book, in a calendar and in Stockholm

Complementing the Foto Signe Brander exhibition, Helsinki City Museum will publish a book by the same name in November 2009. More than a hundred images have been selected for this book, which contains plenty of material not included in the exhibition. A Signe Brander wall calendar, which has been a long-time request of visitors, will also be made available. 

Furthermore, Brander’s work will be showcased in Sweden with the exhibition at the Finnish Institute in Stockholm, from 6 November to 5 December 2009. The exhibition in Stockholm includes images of the familiar and essential Helsinki motifs.

The Worker Housing Museum has reopened after two years of renovation on June 12th 2009. The museum has been gently restored and refurbished, and the cosy atmosphere has been well taken care of during the process. The little “stove rooms” in the museum tell a story about Finnish everyday life in the past.

The Worker Housing Museum is located in the oldest apartments built by the city for its own workers in Helsinki. Not much remains of the tightly built working class neighbourhood that sprang up behind the Pitkäsilta Bridge at the turn of the 20th century – the museum building is one of the few houses left. Next to the Linnanmäki amusement park, the hundred-year-old wooden house brings to life the working class lifestyle of 20th century Helsinki.

In the beginning of the 20th century, in order to improve the poor living conditions of the working class, the city of Helsinki decided to build well-equipped apartments for its own workers on a street then called Kristiinankatu. The apartments were let to workers who had served the city for a long time, and who preferably had large families. The rents were high but the tenants happy.

Wooden houses in the Kallio area started to disappear rapidly from the 1950s onwards. Also the apartments on Kirstinkatu were condemned in 1966 and were left to deteriorate. Life in the houses became restless. The buildings were protected in the city plan in 1986. Three of the buildings were renovated as modern apartments, and one of the buildings was turned into the Worker Housing Museum by the City Museum. The well-preserved building was repaired with care, and as much of the old was preserved as possible. The stove rooms were furnished and decorated as homes of people that had lived in the house in different times.

After almost 20 years as a museum, the building needed a thorough renovation. During the renovation of 2007–2009, the biggest changes were made in the customer service area and the introduction area. There is also a new cellar exhibition and a stove room from the 1970s, where you can make yourself at home for a moment and where touching the exhibits is allowed.

After the foundation of the Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) sea fortress in 1748, many Swedish noble officers came to Helsinki, and soon found more pleasant living accommodation in the manor houses of the region than in the bleak islands of the fort. A French-style rococo culture flourished in the manor houses, in which music and dance played an important part. A music book dedicated in 1767 to 12-year-old Ulrica Elisabet Taube, who lived near Helsinki in the Degerö Manor, was preserved in the Borgå Gymnasium library. It gives us a unique view to the musical life of the Finnish nobility in the 18th century.

Music and dance studies were a major part of the upbringing of noble children, especially girls. They were considered as developing grace and a suitably modest and disciplined decorum. The music book was intended as educational, and contained hand-written songs and clavier pieces, which have probably been played by young Miss Taube with a clavichord or a harpsichord. Most of the names of the pieces are only suggestive, and the lyrics and melodies have to be compared to other sources to reveal the musical wealth of the music book. The fine music book tells us about the family’s education level, and about their connections to the cultural life in the capital Stockholm and in the court.

The Taube music book has many popular opera arias as simple arrangements. Many arias that were originally written in Italian have been translated to or rewritten in Swedish. Skills in different languages were central in a noble girl’s education, so the music book has many songs in French, and even one in English. Most of the composers are foreign, but the Swedish music life that developed rapidly in the 18th century can also be seen in the book in the number of pieces composed by domestic composers.

The majority of the Taube music book is composed of pieces typical for the amateur clavierists of the time. As music played in homes flourished, there was a constant demand for easy, entertaining, and preferably danceable music, and the music teachers composed such pieces for their pupils to learn. Apart from some high-class works, many of these small pieces by anonymous composers are quite poor musically. Nevertheless, they are still interesting fragments of the Finnish music culture in the 18th century, at which we can take a peek through the door opened by the music book of Ulrica Elisabet Taube.

Last year’s Gustavian café in the Sederholm house was a staggering success. Now the year 1809 and Swedish and Russian baking traditions have been chosen as the theme of the café event.

Coffee traditions in early 19th century Finland

Coffee had, despite bans, established itself as the favourite drink of the Finnish upper-class in the early 19th century, from where it slowly spread to the common people. Along with the coffee, people enjoyed rusks, twist buns and biscuits, but many sorts of sweet pastries were also baked in homes and then enjoyed with wine as a dessert after dinner. You could also get wonderful delicacies such as croquembouches, pralines and confections from the few pastry chefs in the country.

Cajsa Warg's Hjelpreda i hushållningen för unga fruentimber (1755) was still a very popular cook book in the early 19th century, and many of the pastries at Café 1809 are based on its recipes. Russian rule didn't revolutionise Finnish coffee tables, even though tea, which had already been drunk at upper-class tables for a long time, increased in popularity during the Russian era.

During the early years of Russian rule, Swiss pastry chefs, who had already widely won fame in Europe, arrived in Finland, which signalled the beginning of modern pastry and café culture. Of course, there were already cafés in Helsinki by the end of the 18th century, but they were a part of a male sphere of life, where the air was filled with pipe smoke and intense political conversation. In the Swiss pastry shops, the first of which was opened in Helsinki in 1817, also women could enjoy sophisticated pastries along with coffee, wine or liqueur.

Chamber music in the café

Young musicians will perform daily in Café 1809. We will hear chamber music that was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Irma Niskanen violin, Solmund Nystabakk guitar
Monday 8th June at 1 p.m.
Tuesday 9th June at 1 p.m.
Wednesday 10th June at 1 p.m.
Thursday 11th June at 1 p.m.
Sunday 14th June at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Vera Plosila traverso, Aura Visala clavier
Monday 8th June at 3 p.m.
Tuesday 9th June at 3 p.m.
Wednesday 10th June at 3 p.m.
Thursday 11th June at 3 p.m.

Essi Iso-oja harp
Friday 12th June at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Solmund Nystabakk guitar
Saturday 13th June at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Evening Programme

Fashionable dances from two centuries ago
On Monday 8th June at 6 p.m., we will learn popular dances from the early 19th century – the polonaise, old waltz and quadrille – lead by dance instructor Varpu Heinonen. Free entrance.

The ting of a harp takes you to the past
Harpist Essi Iso-oja will perform 18th and 19th century harp music found deep within the archives with a historic pedal harp, on Friday 12th June at 6 p.m. Free entrance.

Les Lumières festival programme in the Sederholm House

Wallenbergs svindlande sjöäventyr
The sea adventure of Wallenberg
Young author Jacob Wallenberg took a trip from Gothenburg to China on the ship called Finland in 1769-71. In the spirit of the Enlightenment, he wrote down his observations and experiences in a diary. The colourful and humoristic travel story has inspired a Swedish speaking theatre play, in which the character of Wallenberg attempts to enchant an exquisite clavier-playing damsel with his wild stories. The damsel doesn't easily fall for the seductions of the talkative youngster, but a lively dialogue of words and tones is born between the two. Only as the trip proceeds further on to warm seas can a common melody be found...

Jacob Wallenberg
Joachim Wigelius actor

The musical damsel
Assi Karttunen cembalist

Screenplay, dramatisation and directing
Anneli Mäkelä

Performances in Swedish in the Sederholm House
Tuesday 9th June at 7 p.m.
Wednesday 10th June at 7 p.m.
Thursday 11th June at 7 p.m.
The performance will last about an hour.

The entrance fee to the Wallenberg performance is 12/6 euros, other events at the café are free of charge.

Sederholm House
Aleksanterinkatu 16-18
Tel. +358 (0)9 3103 6529

Exhibition What a Feast! until September 13th 2009
Open Wed–Sun 11am–5pm
June 8th–14th: Mon–Fri 11am–7pm, Sat–Sun 11am–5pm

FREE ENTRANCE

The exhibition was originally made in 2007 by the Luxembourg City Historical Museum with experts, artists and museums from different countries. The exhibition depicts, above all, relations between the Roma and the majority people in Europe, all the way from the first touches in the 14^th century. The Roma’s housing, ways of making a living, customs and culture, such as costumes and music, are also examined.

The goal of the exhibition is more extensive than just the presentation of history and culture. The idea is to examine through the Roma people in what way a foreign folk and culture is often looked at through attitudes and to what kinds of actions this may lead. The exhibition encourages one to recognize his or her ossified thought patterns and to see the foreigner through open eyes, and in the end a brighter future is outlined for the Roma, a future free of the burden of the past..

In addition to the Roma, the exhibition thus tells about the majority population and its images – hence the deliberately tantalising name. Many people feel the traditional prejudices are summed up in the old names used of foreign people. ‘Gypsy’ is abhorrent to many Roma, but on the other hand many of them, perhaps the majority, do not find the word itself to be offensive but rather the ways in which the majority population often uses it.

The exhibition questions the type of superficial political correctness which forbids individual words but does not seek to dismantle prejudices more deeply. For this reason, the word ‘Gypsy’ is used next to Roma both as a historical group name without a value load and as a manifestation of the majority population’s misconceptions. Examining the changing meanings and shades of the names awakens one to consider his or her own use of language.

From Romanian Roma to the Finnish Kalé

In Luxembourg, the Roma exhibition received a record audience and raised fierce discussion for and against in Western Europe. The Helsinki City Museum, which participated in the preparation of the exhibition, decided to bring it to Finland, because the topic was current here as well. The Roma beggars who came from Romania have made the distress of Europe’s Roma a part of everyday Finnish life. The exhibition tells a lot about Romania’s large Roma minority, whose bleak history and dreary current state represent the extreme on the entire continent.

The exhibition has been modified in many ways for the Finnish audience. The Swiss artist Jean-Pierre Zaugg has arranged his exhibition architecture onto the Hakasalmi Villa premises. His colourful and inventive insights, from the luscious green carpet which fills the villa and the oppressive interrogation booths to the gallant horses and kitsch-spirited carousel, delight and open new views to the topic.

The content of the exhibition has also been improved. The sections on Finnish Roma have been widened, also for the reason that the Finnish Kalé differ in many ways from the Roma in other countries. The history and culture of the Finnish Roma are well displayed in the exhibition’s multifaceted and richly illustrated publication and additional programme. A Roma guide is working at the Hakasalmi Villa throughout the exhibition.

One exhibition cannot, of course, comprehensively tell about the history and culture of the whole of Europe’s Roma, especially when the topic is somewhat foreign to the audience. The Helsinki City Museum hopes, however, that the museum will awaken interest in people to familiarise themselves openly and freed from inherited prejudices with the Roma, an ancient yet unfamiliar and misunderstood minority.

Watch out, Gypsies! The History of a Misunderstanding

Hakasalmi Villa, Mannerheimintie 13 D, tel. (09) 3107 8519.

Open 11.2.–30.8.2009 Wed–Sun 11am–5pm, Thu 11am–7pm. FREE ENTRY.

Pictures are available at www.hel2.fi/kaumuseo/lehdistokuvat/romani/

“Helsinki is a town of barns”, was the blunt opinion expressed by the Swedish poet Carl Gustaf Leopold in 1789, but ten years earlier English traveller William Coxe found Helsinki’s location by the sea and immense blocks of granite very romantic. In 1754, Swedish scientist Nils Reinhold Broocman was thrilled by the sturdy cows of Helsinki, but in 1791 Alphonse Fortia de Piles, a French nobleman, saw in the streets at least as many cows as passers-by. The experiences of early visitors to Helsinki were most varied: many saw a modest wooden town with a good harbour, but some were delighted by the exotic Northern landscape.

Tourism was new in the 18th century. The first to find their way to the far north were scientists, followed by the young elite of Britain on their Grand Tour around Europe, which was seen as vital to their education. Lapland was the main attraction, but travellers were also fascinated by St Petersburg and Russia. The journey to St Petersburg was often made via southern Finland along the Great Coastal Road today called the King’s Road. Travellers would also visit places along the road, such as Helsinki, which was home to what many considered the only attraction on the route, the Sveaborg Fortress.

In most travel journals Helsinki is totally overshadowed by Sveaborg, which is no wonder. Established in 1748 to protect the eastern border, the enormous fortress was the century’s largest construction project in the entire kingdom of Sweden. Unique in size, location and technical solutions, the fortress gained a major reputation abroad, despite the fact that it was never completed. Most – especially domestic – travellers were filled with awe and excitement, but foreigners would also note down more or less critical observations about the weak spots of the fortress that was regarded as invincible.

Helsinki’s tourism services were only just developing in the 18th century. The standard of accommodation varied a lot, and it was not always easy for the pickiest of travellers to find a decent room or meal. This is where local gentry came to the rescue, and their hospitality was greatly valued. Cultured foreign visitors were a rare and welcome treat for Helsinki’s upper classes, so these travellers were afforded a friendly welcome. They would often be invited to balls and dinners, which provided the keen and curious hosts a chance to hear news and experiences from different countries while the travellers got the opportunity to learn to know locals and observe their customs.

The exhibition helps to sense the atmosphere of the 18th century and is good preparation for the visit of Götheborg, a copy of a Swedish 18th century merchant vessel that will call at Helsinki 8–15 June. The exhibition is a part of the cultural programme linked with the visit.

Souvenirs from 18th-century Helsinki and Sveaborg
Helsinki City Museum 29 April – 15 June 2008
Sofiankatu 4, tel. (09) 3103 6630. Open Mon–Fri 9 am – 5 pm, Sat–Sun 11 am – 5 pm.
Free entrance.

Ehrensvärd Museum 18 June – 30 September 2008
Suomenlinna B 40, tel. (09) 684 1850. Open 5 May – 31 August Mon–Sun 10 am – 5 pm and 1 September – 30 September Mon–Sun 11 am – 4 pm.
Entrance fee 3/1 e.