Market Square, Helsinki

Market Square in July

The Market Square (Finnish: Kauppatori, Swedish: Salutorget) is a central square in Helsinki, Finland. It is located in central Helsinki, at the eastern end of Esplanadi and bordering the Baltic Sea to the south and Katajanokka to the east. HSL maintains a year-round ferry link from Market Square to Suomenlinna, and in the summer there are also private companies providing ferry cruises, both to Suomenlinna and to other nearby islands. The Presidential Palace, Helsinki City Hall, Swedish Embassy and the Stora Enso Headquarters building (designed by Alvar Aalto) are all located adjacent to Market Square.

The market square around 1900

The Market Square and the South Harbour

Helsinki marketplace in 1948

From spring to autumn, the Market Square is active with vendors selling fresh Finnish food and souvenirs. There are also many outdoor cafés at the square. Some cafés also provide meat pastries (Finnish: lihapiirakka).

The height of the square's popularity is in early October, when the annual Helsinki herring market (silakkamarkkinat) begins.

Old American cars at the Market Square on the first Friday of May.

A long tradition at the Market Square is a display of old American cars on the first Friday of every month. Any motorist with an interest in old American cars may participate in the display.

Seagulls have become an increasing menace in the Market Square, swooping down to snatch snacks and ice cream from the hands of unsuspecting tourists.

History

Up to the early 19th century, the site of the Market Square was the muddy bottom of the Kaupunginlahti bay with fishing piers. The bay was used as a marketplace by local fishermen who attached their boats to the piers and sold fish to the people in Helsinki. Around the site of the current street Pohjoisesplanadi was the street Eteläinen Rantakatu, beyond which lay the city proper. The market square at the time was the Suurtori square (Finnish for "Great Square"), located around the site of the current Senate Square.

The Market Square was born in the early 19th century when the centre of Helsinki was rebuilt to serve as the new capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The zoning plan of Johan Albrecht Ehrenström in 1812 made the old Suurtori square into the new monumental Senate Square and placed a new market square on the site of the former fishing piers. Filling the muddy and shallow bay bottom required a great deal of filling land to build a wide market square suitable for ship traffic. Three harbour basins were built at the square: one at the eastern end for traffic to Sveaborg (now known as the Linnanallas basin), one at the western end for fishing boats (now known as the Cholera Basin) and one to the south of it for steamships (now known as the Vironallas basin). The canal separating Katajanokka from the mainland was also dug during the construction. In the early 1830s the market square was paved with cobblestones.

In the 1890s the Helsinki harbour rail leading to Katajanokka was built along the shore of the market square; because of this the square was expanded seaward and two turning bridges were built at either end of it to allow trains to pass over the mouth of the Cholera Basin and the Katajanokka canal. Train traffic to Katajanokka ended in the 1980s and the tracks were dismantled. About twenty metres of track still remains on the cobblestones at the square, and a disused old bridge turner's cabin remains near the Cholera Basin.

See also

• Havis Amanda
• Keisarinnankivi
• Old Market Hall, Helsinki
• Hakaniemi market square

External links

Media related to Helsinki Market Square at Wikimedia Commons