Helsinki Cathedral

Stand Inside Engel's Vision at Helsinki Cathedral

Carl Ludvig Engel was a jobless German architect displaced by Napoleon who ended up designing virtually every important building in a country he'd never planned to visit. His masterpiece: Helsinki Cathedral on Senate Square — a Greek cross plan with six Corinthian columns on each pediment, a central green dome rising 80 metres above sea level, completed posthumously in 1852. Stand at the top of the 60 steps and look down at the square he designed — Government Palace, University, National Library. Engel also lived on Bulevardi, the same boulevard where you'll drink wine at Dagmar 200 years later.