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Helsinki's belle époque
What was Helsinki like a century ago? Virtual Finland offers you some remarkable views of the city filmed between 1906 and 1911. This unique footage is part of a film collage produced for a travel fair in Berlin in the spring of 1911, its purpose to attract visitors to Finland. The opening credits show the Swedish name for Helsinki, which is "Helsingfors", appropriate for this bilingual city. In one sequence, the camera, mounted on a tram, moves down the avenue called Esplanadi observing the people going about their daily business, everything and almost everybody looking singularly neat, orderly and, yes, elegant - just like today.

In 1907, approximately at the same time as this film was shot, a British member of parliament, A. Maccallum Scott, visited Helsinki. In his book "Through Finland to St. Petersburg" he describes his impressions of the city, particularly the market place and the Esplanade, both featured in our film: 		Contrast in styles

Contrast in styles. Traditional wooden dwellings and high-rise Art Nouveau buildings, 1907.

"Helsingfors (Helsinki) is one of the most interesting towns in Europe. In spite of its rapid growth, it is still a small town (at that time Helsinki had 125,000 residents). Nevertheless, its note is metropolitan rather than provincial. Its civilisation and culture are thoroughly national. It is a centre of commerce, of art, of learning, and of the political ambition of a nation in which a long dormant vigour has suddenly awakened."