Finland’s capital city, Helsinki, gives new meaning to the phrase digging deep. While the Baltic city stands as a gem on its own, it contains hidden depths you can traverse on your explorations of the destination. Seek out the underground tunnels that house a city separate from the Finnish capital but are still a part of its fascinating history.
Memories of the Cold War and tensions with Russia led to the construction of Helsinki’s subterranean city. They began carving out the tunnels in the 1960s for the purposes of containing sewers, powerlines and other utilities. It’s thought that Helsinki is the only city in the world to have such an elaborate, underground master plan. The tunnel system is carefully planned to be able to house the city’s population of over 600,000 in case of invasion.
But city planners soon realized their underground shelter system could also become home to cultural and sporting facilities, retail and other community spaces. Today, the almost 200 miles of tunnels serve Helsinki’s residents and travelers alike as an alternate route to getting around the city. It’s also convenient for avoiding the elements during particularly harsh seasons. You could easily enter the tunnels via a subway entrance and walk the routes from one shop to the next, all without having to put on your winter coat. Some entrances even include elevators up straight into stores and buildings.
Along with emergency stockpiles of supplies to serve its original purpose, the subterranean tunnels of Helsinki hold a city of their own. The Itäkeskus swimming hall is both a community swimming pool and emergency shelter. An underground hockey rink and go-kart track make the tunnels an attractive diversion for the young at heart. Visit the Temppeliaukio Church, one of the underground city’s more popular sites.
In 2018, the city built the Amos Rex art museum, which earned recognition from the BBC as one of the most innovative pieces of architecture in Europe. It contains an exhibition hall of 23,500 square feet, displaying mostly modern works. The museum has been one of the most well-received spaces of the subterranean city and opened up the possibility of more private facilities being built underground to create more space above ground.
Sign up and be the first to know about special offers, new itineraries and more.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.