Suomenlinna Finland. Excursion to Suomenlinna Fortress

Suomenlinna is one of the most interesting attractions in Helsinki, a great place to walk, dine and even spend the night. This open-air museum is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Suomenlinna, that is, the “Finnish fortress” (or, in the second state language of Finland - Sveaborg) is a sea bastion built on several islands in order to protect the entrance to the harbor of the Finnish capital. The first fortress was built during the Swedish rule - in 1748-1772. However, she could not resist the Russian troops - she fell in 1808, and after her, all of Finland came under the rule of the Russian Empire. And much later, in 1855 - during the Crimean War - she was able to repulse the Anglo-French squadron. Then the walls were completed and rebuilt, so now we already see the “Russian version” of the “Finnish fortress”.

Why go to the island in Suomenlinna

Firstly, an excursion to the island is a pleasant walk along the sea, and, by the way, it will cost less than 1-2 hour excursions offered on the waterfront. From the water you can see (in an unusual perspective!) Most of the city's attractions.

Secondly, Suomenlinna is a great place for walks and picnics in fine weather. There are a dozen establishments on the territory of the fortress, among which there is even a restaurant-brewery.

Thirdly, to stay inexpensively, Hostel Suomenlinna has been opened on one of the islands.

And, finally, those who are interested in history will be interested in walking along the outstanding fortification, inspecting the preserved forts and bastions, visiting the military and customs museums, as well as on a submarine.

And on the main island of Suomenlinna, there is an “open type” men's prison that prepares prisoners for life in freedom. Prisoners work on the island or travel to the “mainland”, receive a salary and use it to pay for their maintenance.

How to get to Suomenlinna

Very simple! Ferries run from the Market Square (Kauppatori) to the fortress from 6 am to 2 am - from 2 to 4 times an hour, depending on the day of the week and season. Travel time is approximately 20 minutes. Regular public transport tickets are valid on these ferries. That is, if you bought a subscription for the day, you can go to the island using it.

• Forgot to do it ahead of time? No problem! There is free wi-fi in the information center of the fortress (located in the first building you see from the pier).

Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) on ​​the map

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What immediately comes to mind when we talk about Finland? Of course, Helsinki! And what is primarily associated with the city of Helsinki? Of course, the fortress of Sveaborg, or, as it is also called, Suomelinna.

The oldest fortress, built back in the days when Finland was part of Sweden, is an integral symbol of the country. It is marked by UNESCO as part of the architectural and cultural heritage and invariably attracts thousands of tourists every month.

The history of the fortress begins in the middle of the 18th century, in 1748. Built on the Wolf Skerries - nearby islands - it was supposed to protect the city from invading enemy troops. The building coped with this task perfectly until 1808, when it was captured by Russian troops after a long battle. Since then, and for the next 110 years, Sveaborg was under the control of Russia. During the Crimean War, the fortress held back the invasion of the Anglo-French troops.

In 1918, Finland became an independent state and Sveaborg received a new name - Suomelinna, which means "Finnish fortress" in Swedish. For about half a century, the building belonged to the military, served as a base for artillery, until in 1973 it acquired the status of a museum.

Since 1991, Suomelinna has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a valuable architectural and cultural monument.

Sveaborg today: what to see and do

Today Sveaborg is a museum and a hallmark of Finland. Both adults and children will find entertainment here; and lovers of architecture, and connoisseurs of a variety of military equipment, which is available in abundance here. Tourists will also note the beautiful nature, and gourmets will find a place with delicious national cuisine in an old medieval setting. This fortress has everything, even a working prison, so it makes sense to arrive at the opening so that you have a whole day at your disposal.

We list briefly the main museums of Suomelinna:

• in fact, the Suomelinna Museum. Everything that has remained intact over the long years of the existence of the fortress, you can carefully examine in this museum.
• military museum "Manezh", where you can study Finnish military equipment in all details
• Ehrensvärd Museum, which, among other things, contains paintings by an artist who lived and worked directly in the fortress
• the Vesikko submarine is a must-visit - a rare opportunity to see the inside of a real boat from the Second World War
• customs museum, whose name speaks for itself
• and for dessert - the toy museum, which has collected a collection of bears, dolls and other children's games for a period of about two hundred years. If you come to Sveaborg with children, be sure to leave an hour and a half for this museum, especially since the museum has a very nice cafe.

A little nuance: if you take care of purchasing the Helsinki Card in advance, visiting museums will cost you ... Free!

In addition to museums, the fortress itself is also worthy of attention. Forts, barracks, bastions and ancient fortress walls will not leave you indifferent.

• Special attention should be paid to the Great Courtyard with a characteristic distorted perspective of buildings.
• Interesting is the Royal Gate, erected in 1754 on the site where, according to legend, the king of Sweden stood and watched the construction of the fortress.
• The Zander Bastion will amaze you with an exhibition of ancient weapons and massiveness.
• The docks of Suomellina are the oldest surviving in Europe.
• Kronwerk Ehrensvärd is simply beautiful in itself.

And in case you have toured the fortress, visited museums and you have free time (which is unlikely), or you come to Suomelinna not for the first time, the fortress offers its guests many interesting events. Every year, regardless of the season, exhibitions, concerts, open-air performances, as well as opera performances and even sailing regattas are held here.

Address on the map

The address of Sveaborg Fortress is very simple:

• Suomenlinna C74, Helsinki

How to get there

Sveaborg Fortress is located on an island, so if you don't have your own helicopter, the only way to get there is by water.

The easiest way is public transport, the HCL ferries, which run every 40-60 minutes from the Helsinki market square, starting from 6 am to 6 pm.

If you don't like the ferry, use the JT-line water bus. The cost of one or the other type of transport is about 5 euros. Tickets can be purchased both at advance ticket offices and directly on board.

The distance to the fortress of Sveaborg from the capital is about two kilometers, so the road will not be long, no more than fifteen minutes.

Working hours

The Suomelinna Museum opens at 9.45 am and is open until 6 pm. Until about the same time, other museums located on the territory of the fortress are open to visitors - the Toy Museum, the Manege and others. Some of them close at 17.00 or 17.30.

Fortunately, cafes and restaurants are open longer, so after visiting the museums you can dine with appetite. The last catering establishment on the island closes at 23.00.

Official site

If the information provided in this article turned out to be not enough for you, it only provoked you and you want more details; or if you still have questions - comprehensive data can be found on the official website of the Sveaborg Fortress (Suomelinna) at www.suomenlinna.fi/ru/. All information on the site is provided, including in Russian, so we recommend that you study it if you are going to visit Helsinki during your next vacation.

Sveaborg fortress map

1. I went to the Sveaborg fortress (translated from Swedish Sveaborg - Swedish fortress) immediately after a short one. Actually, the main point of the program that day was not a city, but a fortress located on islands in the Baltic Sea.

2. While still sailing on the ferry, I saw various buildings of the fortress. Here is a powder cellar, built on an artificial peninsula for safety.

3. A lot of boats are concentrated on the islands, because there is no land connection with the city. There are also quite rare hovercraft.

4. Having landed on the shore, I go to explore the coastal strip.

5. A beautiful view of the center of the Finnish capital opens from here. Before him, in general, within reach.

6. The islands themselves are entirely stone, rocky, called "Wolf Skerries".

7. The crevices of the rocks are filled with earth, from where low birch trees and grass with moss grow.

8. It is extremely rare to find sandy coves.

9. The fortress itself was built in the middle of the 18th century on seven islands to protect Helsingfors from the sea.

10. Basically, the fortifications were built of boulders tightly fitted to each other, reinforced in places with brickwork.

11. The main gate of the fortress from the side of the pier is decorated with a turret with a spire and a clock. All this was built in the 1860s by Russian military engineers.

12. In the center of the island stands a Lutheran church with a lighthouse dome. And initially it was an Orthodox cathedral in the name of Alexander Nevsky, built in 1854 by the famous architect Konstantin Ton, and was very similar to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior designed by him. In the 20th century, the Finns rebuilt the building beyond recognition.

13. The buildings inside the fortifications are entirely brick. In the former arena there is an exposition of weapons of the Second World War, but on the day of my arrival it was closed.

14. Some buildings are erected on a high stone plinth.

15. At the entrance to the residence of the commandant of the fortress lies a broken anchor of absolutely unimaginable size.

16. Next to it is an unusually designed power pole.

17. In total, 900 people live on the islands, and quite ordinary houses can be found here.

18. Crossbars for drying ropes, for reliability, were driven into the stone foundation of the island by local residents.

19. On the island of Pikku Musta (Small Black), which was called Hospital under the Russian Empire, the Naval Academy is now located.

20. At the entrance to the academy there is a sculpture symbolizing the coat of arms of the country - a lion in a crown holding a sword in its paw.

21. The academy is surrounded by the fortifications of the Lilo-Osterswerd fort, on the shaft of which there are anti-aircraft guns from the Second World War.

22. And the coast here is covered by coastal guns.

23. There is a museum and a tourist center in one of the barracks, but, as it turned out, nothing works here in October.

24. In 1808, Finland was conquered by the Russian army. On March 2, the fortress was besieged. After a month of fruitless attempts to take the fortifications, a truce was concluded. It was decided that if the Swedish fleet did not come to the rescue by May 4, the fortress would surrender. The fleet did not come to the rescue, the seven thousandth garrison of the fortress surrendered. Everyone was dismissed to their homes, having taken the word not to participate in hostilities anymore. All artillery and ammunition went to the Russians.

25. The most powerful fortifications of the fortress are located on the island of Susisaari, the former Wolf Island.

26. Two-meter walls are equipped with loopholes for artillery shelling of the enemy fleet.

27. Small loopholes were intended for firing rifles at the enemy, who risked taking the fortifications by storm.

28. The most interesting fortifications are in the southern part of the island. They once held the Strait of Kustaanmiekka (Gustav's Sword), clearly visible behind. Despite the fact that the gap between the islands seems small, huge ferries easily pass through it.

29. The local bastions contain dozens of casemates, all of them are connected by posterns, where you can wander interestingly.

30. In some bastions, old cannons are stacked that once protected the entrance to the harbor of Helsinki.

31. A small door in one casemate.

32. Behind it is a long corridor with several turns, called the porch.

33. Posterns connected various parts of the fortress with each other.

34. It was possible to move along such corridors without fear of enemy shells and bullets.

35. There were storage rooms in the curtain wall, where the floor was paved with bricks.

36. Leaving the casemates, I got to the Royal Gates, in front of which lies the pier of the same name. Once it was the main entrance to the fortress. In front of the gate lies a deep ditch, more like a narrow gap, through which a rising wooden bridge is thrown.

37. At the pier, a massive ring is driven into the rock.

38. From the pier there is a beautiful view of the island of Iso Mustasaari (former Komendantsky), where the corrective labor colony is located. There, under symbolic protection, people who have committed minor offenses are working on the restoration of the fortress.

39. Not far from the gate, you can see the tiny Vesikko submarine built in the 1930s. After the war, Finland was forbidden to have a submarine fleet, as a result of which the submarine lay abandoned for a long time on one of the islands of Suomenlinna. Now it has been restored and turned into a museum. Unfortunately, there was a lock on the door when I visited.

40. For more than a century the fortress was part of the Russian Empire. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the Russian command was engaged in strengthening the defense of Helsingfors. On the island of Lansi Musta (Western Cherny, formerly Strelkov), the concrete position of the Russian coastal battery has been preserved.

41. Two massive doors lead to the interior of the battery.

45. They are closed with a lock, which has had time to pretty rust.

43. There are traces of small shells on the doors. The fortress took part in the fighting during the First World War.

44. The battery was designed for four guns hidden in gun yards behind the parapet. Under a thick layer of concrete there was a gallery for sheltering the calculation and ammunition. A small cast-iron hatch was provided for feeding shells.

45. Unfortunately, now there is not a single gun left here, only cast-iron supports remain. However, many Russian cannons have been preserved on the islands, which can be seen in one of the following posts.

The ferry company Moby PSL, which operates the Princess Anastasia ferry on the St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Tallinn-Stockholm-Petersburg line, also organizes excursions to the sights of Finland, Estonia and Sweden. One of the most popular is an excursion to the Suomenlinna fortress near Helsinki.

Benefits of a ferry tour

Recall that in 2017 the Princess Anastasia ferry underwent a serious renovation, choosing an Italian theme as the interior design, content of services and restaurant menus. In 2018, during the off-season, certain changes were also made, in particular, the design of the restaurant was completely changed, many Italian dishes were added to the menu.

The list of group and individual excursions in the cities to which the vessel arrives has also been expanded. These are sightseeing tours, which are in great demand, as well as thematic and individual ones. An important nuance: excursion groups use a priority exit from the ferry.

There are several ways to buy tours:
— online at stpeterline.com;
- in St. Petersburg at the sales office at the Marine Station (Marine Glory Square, 1);
- directly on board the ferry.

The cost of the excursion to the Suomenlinna Fortress:
Adults: 28 euros
Children from 7 to 12 years old accompanied by adults: 16 euros.

Like ferry tickets, excursions are best purchased in advance.

Fortress Sveaborg (in Swedish), it is also Suomenlinna (in Finnish), which is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Some visitors draw a parallel between Sveaborg and St. Petersburg. However, they only have bastions and casemates in common.

Founded at the end of the 18th century, the Suomenlinna sea fortress is much larger, located on several islands, has its own post office, school and, of course, houses for permanent residence. On the territory of the fortress there is even a dry dock, where various ships, including sailboats, are being repaired and simply stand. The houses on the island are mostly private, but the land is state-owned. In general, this is an independent region of Helsinki with a population of about 800 people.

The fortress is open to visitors all year round.
– from May 2 to September 30, it works from 10 am to 6 pm;
- from October 01 to April 30 - from 10 to 16 hours.

Entrance to the fortress is free, you need to pay only when visiting museums, of which there are quite a lot:
– Suomenlinna Museum;
— Ehrensvärd Museum (founder and first commandant of Sveaborg Fortress);
- the toy museum in Suomenlinna;
- military museum;
- submarine "Vesikko";
- customs museum.

How to get to Suomenlinna

Since the fortress is located on the islands, the only way to get there is by ferry. A ticket for it can be purchased at the Helsinki market square, at the terminal, from where small ferries leave for the island.

A single pass is convenient in that you can use all types of transport, including ferries to the island where the fortress is located. This is a 24-hour pass that is valid on the tram, metro, buses, Helsinki suburban trains and the ferry to Suomenlinna. You can also buy it for up to 7 days at R-kioski kiosks, large department stores, ticket machines and HSL service points.

During the summer season, ferries run every 15 minutes, starting at 6 am and ending at 02:20 am.

The ferry from the center of Helsinki to Suomenlinna has both closed and open decks. On a fine spring or summer day, you can choose the upper, open deck, which offers wonderful views of the bay and the nearest islands. In fairness, it should be noted that it can be quite cool on it, so take warm clothes with you. In principle, it should be taken with any boat trips, especially in windy Helsinki.
In the warm cabin, you can admire the views of open water, numerous ice floes by the window and warm yourself from the stoves located along the inner side of the ferry.

Just twelve minutes after departure, the ferry lands at the pier on the island.

Guided tour of Suomenlinna

The tour lasts two hours. During this time, you manage to get around the entire fortress, get a lot of interesting information and also go to a cafe and drink coffee. In the same cafe you can buy souvenirs.

Since you need to walk a lot, including over rough terrain, loose or sports clothes and shoes are preferable. It's a little colder here than in Helsinki, more windy. Model shoes and heels are strictly not recommended, because many paths in the fortress are paved with large pebbles. There is an easy route for people with reduced mobility. The same route is recommended for families with prams.

It should be noted that everything on the islands will be very interesting for children: guns, mortars, casemates and even a small tunnel with stalactites on the vault. But it is better to go with older children, as it is now customary to say 6+.

The island has several cafes, souvenir shops and shops, toilets. In the cafe, the choice is quite large, and the prices are the same as in.

Andrey Kovalev

Have you ever noticed that in any city on Earth, most of the interesting places are always in close proximity to each other. You just walk through the historical center and “string” the sights one by one, like multi-colored beads on a needle and thread… Here is the Cathedral, here is the Senate Square… And here is the Old Market, and behind it you can see the Assumption Cathedral… One after another… One by one…

Everything seems to be smooth and even… Aha!!! Be that as it may!.. Just like the beads of beads that tend to roll behind the sofa, so among the sights of the conditional city of X there will certainly be one or two such points for which you will have to drag yourself to the other end of the earth. Places like a rebel squad in the world of attractions. Whatever you take, in almost every city in the world you will definitely find something similar. Personally, at least I have seen such pictures already very many times. Do you want an example? Yes, at least ten! .. This is both, and, and the Lennusadam Museum in Tallinn, and ... I can continue this list for a long time. But in fact, now within the framework of this particular article, this does not matter in principle. After all, today I would like to tell you about just one of these places, the most “hard-to-reach” attraction of Helsinki - the old fortress of Suomenlinna (aka Sveaborg).

Despite the fact that this place is often referred to as a Helsinki "must see", getting to it is not so easy. The islands of Susisaaret, on which the fortress stands, are cut off from the city by the waters of the Gulf of Finland. Therefore, getting here, it immediately seems that you are already, as it were, and not quite in Helsinki. The water surface spreads around... Huge smooth boulders come close to the shore... And above all this, like a local "gopota", a detachment of white gulls is circling...

It's quiet around - and it seems that in just 10 minutes you have exchanged noisy Helsinki for some nice and cozy suburb.

However, okay ... Something I broke up ... It is necessary to reduce the degree of vanilla. Let me tell you about everything in order...

A little bit of history (albeit quite a bit) ...

The decision to build fortresses on the islands of Susisaaret (“Wolf Skerries”) was made after the Russian-Swedish war in the middle of the 18th century. In those days, the territory of modern Finland was part of the Swedish Empire, and therefore the fortress itself was called Sveaborg (which means "Swedish fortress"). After Finland gained independence, the local bastions were used during the civil war of 1918. A camp for the Finnish Red Guards was formed on the islands, and the fortress itself officially received the name Suomenlinna (literally - "Finnish fortress"). Why am I writing this? The thing is that today the Finnish and Swedish languages ​​\u200b\u200bhave an official status in Finland, so the fortress is alternately called either Sveaborg or Suomenlinna. Thus, today this island bastion is called both Finnish and Swedish.

In 1991, the fortress complex, along with other island buildings, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today, there are numerous museums, a naval academy, the remains of old artillery, private houses with nine hundred permanent residents, and even a “light regime” prison, the prisoners of which maintain the fortress in proper form. The Finns themselves (as it seemed to me) usually use this place as a picnic area: while tourists ran around the island with cameras, they just sat peacefully on the rocks and, eating the supplies they brought with them, looked at the rocks and the water surface.

To tell the truth, it is for the sake of picnics and the picturesque nature of this place that it is worth going here from Helsinki. Everything else - fortresses, cannons and other structures made a much lesser impression on me. The exception is these grassy fortifications, similar to the houses of Bilbo Baggins.

They are cool. And everything else is walls and walls ... I could write nothing more about them at all. But the blogger's duty dictates ... Therefore, there will be a long story about all the interesting places that can be found on this island. Let me start with a mini-tour for you. And we’ll leave the technical points (such as “how to get to Sveaborg” and where to rent a house) in the end ...

Sveaborg fortress: churches, cannons and "Russian" houses...

In general, it is believed that there are a lot of “sights” in this place: on the tourist maps that can be obtained at the information center, as many as 45 different points are marked !!! But most of them can be attributed to the sights only formally. Mostly - these are various museums, ramparts and catering facilities. Another thing is that all of them are located quite compactly and, as if on a thread, are strung on the “blue route”, which stretches across two islands at once.

It starts from the main pier, and then passes through the "Russian village", where merchants from Russia once lived...

Past the garrison church…

Military museum...

Numerous souvenir shops…

"Messiah... Save your breath"...

And low bridges linking the banks together.

So that tourists do not get confused on the islands, here and there there are special signs showing the way to the main points of Sveaborg. Seeing certain interesting points on the signs, Tanya and I constantly changed the route and went to the sides, then to the right, then to the left. This is how (unplanned) we, for example, got to submarine Vesikko(I called her "Suliko").

I can't say that it makes any special impression (like, for example, the submarine Lembit, standing in the Maritime Museum of Tallinn). But it's definitely worth taking a couple of minutes to visit. After all, it's not every day you see submarines on the streets.

If someone is especially interested in the topic of boats, I will also note that there is also a “dry port” on the territory of the Suomenlinna islands. Really dry… (like an uncertified Rollton). It is located to the right of Great Fortress with Ehrensvärd's grave(This, by the way, is another boat).

This yard looks very nice ... Spreading trees everywhere, rough stones overgrown with green ivy, as well as all the same old Swedish cannons, of which there are as many as seagulls flying overhead ... Next will be photos. I think they will tell everything better than me.

Returning to the topic of the dry dock, I note that in June 2017, when I personally was on the island, this place looked rather pathetic.

In the middle of a huge hollow stood one single ship, and around it lay the remains of some kind of logs and pipes. However, see for yourself. In the pictures from the tourist brochures, this place looked much more presentable.

We looked there for a couple of minutes, took pictures and returned to the blue route again. Flowers bloomed all around...

Lilac swayed overhead...

And the ubiquitous Chinese, right from the bridge, tried to feed seagulls from their hands.

Damn ... When I see such pictures, Zadornov wakes up in me with his eternal: "Well, stupid ...". I stood behind them and prayed that the next seagull would peck out one of these citizens of the Celestial Empire. Well, or at least tore off an earring ... And now I'm almost serious. Seagulls in Finland can only be fed with poison!!! Those who have been to Helsinki will understand me. These are not birds - but the air mafia. They steal food, fly right overhead... I once even read a story on the Internet that a seagull on a pier in Helsinki snatched a camera from some tourist. On the piers of the city there are special signs "Do not feed the seagulls." But these are the Chinese... They say one day they will take over the world. Damn ... One hope for the Japanese (that they still invent their own robots and deal with China in the near future). I would not want to eat one rice for days in my old age ...

Seascapes and King's Gate

Probably, reading this text, you are now all wondering: “Where is the very fortress that is constantly being discussed here”? I answer: the whole point is that the Sveaborg fortress is not a single bastion, but rather a certain combination of walls and cannons located on those same islands in the Gulf of Finland.

The walls of the fortress overgrown with grass are found everywhere here. Just don't expect to see any single architectural complex like the Moscow Kremlin or something like that on the islands. Sveaborg Fortress is walls, walls, walls, cannons, walls ... plus these Royal Gates, which are one of the unspoken symbols of this place.

As I said at the very beginning, it’s worth going here for the seascapes…

Hobbit huts and other fabulous buildings that look like stone giants peeping out of the ground ...

Or, for example, in order to have a picnic on the rocky shores of the island ...

We, for example, did just that. They took a blanket, food and two cans of cranberry gin - they climbed away and began to rest. Somewhere near the shore a couple of white swans were swarming…

Ahead, among the waves and strokes of the stingy sun, the sails of some small ship flickered ...

At that moment, the ubiquitous seagulls no longer infuriated me (although one of them whistled a cherry from me and swallowed it with a bone in a matter of seconds).

Probably our best day in Finland in our entire three day trip to Helsinki. This is the culmination of the journey. It is on every trip. But now I will not promote this topic much ... I will just write that it is definitely worth a trip to the islands of the Suomenlinna fortress. Especially in clear weather. Further in this article, as promised, I will write to you about how to do this.

Suomenlinna (Sveaborg): how to get from Helsinki

Special ships included in the urban transport system go to the islands every day from 6 am to 2-20 am. They depart from such a station near the Helsinki Market Square. Usually, during the daytime there are a lot of people around her. So you don't miss it.

You can buy a ticket at the box office or from a vending machine (5 euros). It is valid for 12 hours (so with one ticket you can go there and back).

You can also go on a trip with a regular 24-hour city pass (HSL) or a Helsinki card. The ferries themselves run regularly. The interval of movement is from 20 minutes to 1 hour (but you are guided by a smaller figure - there are large intervals between flights only at night). Travel time is 15 minutes. The ships themselves have both open and closed platforms. The first time we rode on the "roof" of the ferry...

But they were already returning back, having settled down on the inner platform.

Along the way, the ferry sails through several small islands. In clear weather, sailing in an open area is very pleasant. The only thing that slightly spoils the impression is the seagulls flying right overhead. As you understand, in this story they are the main antagonists.

When you arrive on the island, the tourist information center will be right in front of you. On the other side, there is a grocery store and a board with flight schedules. If for some reason this option does not suit you and instead of 5 euros you really want to pay all seven for the journey, you can also sail to the islands on the “water buses” of the JT-Line company. Detailed information about routes and timetables can be found on their official website www.jt-line.fi.

Where to rent a house on the islands

Next to the fortress, right on the islands, there is the Suomenlinna hostel, opened in a former school building. The hostel has rooms for two or three or 6-10 people. Therefore, if you wish, there is something to choose from. In summer, a double room in this place will cost you 68 euros (which is quite a low amount for Helsinki). A bed in a dormitory will cost 25. In the off-season, prices are lower. Check them out