A day on Suomenlinna Island, Finland

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Suomenlinna is a sea fortress built on 8 islands just south of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site, and people still live on the island today.

The fortress was actually built by the Swedish crown (who ruled Finland at the time) in 1748, and named Sveaborg (Castle of the Swedes). It was built as protection against the Russians who at the time were expanding their power in Europe. During the Finnish War, Sweden surrendered the fortress to Russia in 1808, which meant the occupation of Finland by Russian forces. Russia held the fortress all the way until Finnish independence in 1918.

The fortress was then renamed in Finnish to Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) in 1918 for patriotic and nationalistic reasons. The fort is now no longer used as such, but instead houses a number of interesting museums documenting its history, beautiful sea views, and of course the fort itself is interesting to walk around.


  1. Contents
  2. How to get to Suomenlinna island
  3. What to do on Suomenlinna Island
    1. King’s Gate
    2. Suomenlinna Church
    3. The Jetty Barracks
    4. Bastion Zander
    5. Great Courtyard
    6. Suomenlinna Museum
    7. Ehrensvard Museum
    8. The Military Museum
    9. Submarine Vesikko
    10. The Toy Museum
  4. Tips for visiting Suomenlinna

Suomenlinna is accessible only by water. A ferry service runs from the Market Square in Helsinki to the island throughout the year; it’s operated by HSL and all of their schedules are online (but the ferries run 1 to 4 times per hour during the daylight hours, so are fairly easy to find). During summer and autumn, there is also a water bus service available.

The trip to Suomenlinna takes 15–20 minutes and gives beautiful views back to Helsinki and across the water. I visited the island during the winter, and the boat trip through the ice-covered waters was a unique experience in itself – it was incredibly beautiful.

Sunrise view over the ice filled water on the ferry


The King’s Gate is the iconic symbol of Suomenlinna. It was built in 1753 as the entrance to the fortress. When I visited, the whole sea was frozen so stepping through the gate from the island gave way to gorgeous views over an expanse of ice.

View from the King’s Gate out over the completely frozen water

The Suomenlinna Church was built as a Russian Orthodox church in 1854, with the typical domes and spires associated with similar churches. However, at the beginning of the Finnish era it was converted in to a Lutheran church – the domes lost their ‘onion’ shapes and the tower was made quadrangular.

At the church

Another Russian era building, the striking pink jetty barracks are one of the first things visitors to the island see, as they form the main gateway to the fortress. The barracks were designed to accommodate up to 250 soldiers.

Approaching the Jetty Barracks

This is the main area where you can get a good view out from and over the fortress. This is also the location where the Finnish flag flies, though when I visited it wasn’t flying. This is because it only flies from 12 May to 29 September (and I visited in Jan). The flag hoisting date is significant because the flag of an independent Finland was hoisted over Suomenlinna for the first time on 12 May 1918.

The Great Courtyard served as the main square and administrative centre of the fortress. The houses surrounding the courtyard included the fortress commandant’s house and the main guard house. In the middle of the square you can now see the tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd, the founder of the island.

The main courtyard and tomb of Augustin Ehrensvard

If you only have time to visit one museum on the island, make it this one. It tells the story of the history, restoration and present use of the fortress and is open all year round. There is also a short film about the fortress as well which is a good option if you have children with you and don’t have time to read all the boards.

This musuem is located in the official residence of the fortress’s commandants, and is focused on telling the history of the Swedish period of the fortress. It is named after the first proprietor of the building and founder of the fortress, Augustin Ehrensvärd. The musuem is only open during the summer though, so I didn’t get to visit this one.

The Military museum exhibits Finland’s story during the wars it has fought for its independence. This includes the Civil War in 1918, the Winter War in 1939–1940, the Continuation War in 1941–1944 and the Lapland War in 1944–1945. This was my favourite museum on the island as I’m very interested in WW2 history. I know it inside out from British & German perspectives, so to understand the battles faced by other countries, like Finland, is always so interesting.

By far one of the most popular attractions in Suomenlinna, this WW2 submarine has been restored so you can visit inside it and see the cramped interior where around 20 crew members worked below the sea.

Inside the submarine (photo c/o TripAdvisor)

Suomenlinna Toy Museum is housed in one of the wooden houses of the island, and is a collection of old dolls, antique teddy bears and other old toys from the early 19th century until the 1960s, with wartime toys and games a speciality. The house is also home to a cafe so win win for 30 minutes of your time.


  • I absolutely loved the unique experience of visiting in the snow, so I really recommend going in January or February. That said, some of the museums are closed so if you want to be able to do everything, then the shoulder spring or autumn seasons may be better for a visit
  • Wear sturdy footwear – the island is deceptively big and there are walls to climb, cannons to explore and cobbled paths to navigate
  • Give the island a whole day. The museums alone can take hours of your time and are well worth exploring.
  • Get the first ferry of the day to avoid the crowds. The fortress island opens at 8am, but many of the museums don’t open until 10am. A good idea is to get there early, walk around enjoying the crowd free views and then head to the museums as other people start to arrive.
Beautiful snowy Suomenlinna


Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve found this post interesting and that it might have made you want to visit Suomenlinna one day! I can’t wait to return to explore more of Finland – the Northern lights in one of those panoramic huts are definitely high on the post COVID travel list. Stay safe and happy travelling all.

19 responses to “A day on Suomenlinna Island, Finland”

  1. I love taking this ferry summer or winter but like you found it exhilarating sitting out on deck as the boat made its way through the icy waters. Happy memories. M xx

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    1. Yes definitely a unique experience through the icy waters 🙂 thanks for stopping by and hope you had a lovely weekend x

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Great post and beautiful photos! 😊 Now I definitely want to visit Finland. It’s actually one of the countries I know very little about, despite watching many detective series set in Helsinki city. Thanks for sharing and have a good day 😀 Aiva

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    1. Thanks Aiva! Oh for sure, there is so much to discover and I can’t wait to go back. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your evening 😊

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  3. Suomenlinna looks very tempting. Would love to visit that submarine and the winter landscape is just gorgeous.

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    1. Its such a lovely place to visit. The submarine is definitely cool, and winter makes for a beautiful time to visit (plus there are no crowds!). Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely evening 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Looks utterly freezing, but magical all the same! Never been to Suomenlinna Island, but it looks like a worthwhile place to check out, should I revisit Helsinki some day. Fascinating to learn more about Finnish history, especially when it doesn’t often get taught in schools!

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    1. Absolutely freezing, but most of Europe is in January so it’s still good to get out and explore 🙂 No it definitely doesn’t, it’s crazy to think it hasn’t even been independent for that long really! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day 🙂

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  5. Looks beautiful but freezing haha! I find that visiting in offseason can be nice because it avoids some of the crowds – but then things can be closed. Oh how I miss exploring!

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  6. jasonlikestotravel

    Quite pleased you say this is a full day excursion. I’d planned to visit here on my last day in the city but overslept and didn’t want to rush it, knowing I’d definitely come back to Helsinki.

    Looks like there’s plenty to see on the island :). Top of my list for the next visit!

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    1. Ahh yes it’s definitely worth a decent amount of time. We arrived at about 9am, and walked round for about 1.5hrs exploring outside. We then did the war museum 10.30-12.30, had lunch and did a couple of the other museums and submarine – leaving at around 4pm. It was well worth giving it a lot of time 🙂 Hope you get to go back soon!

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Makes me want to return to Finland. Looks like an interesting island to visit. We took the cruised from Helsinki to St Petersburg. Thanks for sharing and love those photos.

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    1. Ahh that must have been awesome going from Helsinki to St Petersburg. Yeah it’s definitely worth exploring and I can’t wait to get back to Finland one day too 🙂

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    1. It’s definitely worth a visit! 🙂

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  8. Oh I didn’t even see half this list when I went! It was March, maybe it was closed or maybe I was just oblivious to the rest of the island. It was covered with snow and you’re right, it’s such a sight. I especially loved the ferry ride and hearing the ice sheets break. That’s not a sound that I had heard before.

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    1. Ahh March is low season so it was probably all closed up! It’s amazing in the snow isn’t it…that ice on the water on the ferry over is a sound I’d never heard before either and was such a special experience! Thanks for reading and have a lovely day 🙂

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Hi! My name is Hannah, I’m a travel blogger from the UK who fits travel around a full time (and full on) job. In this blog I share my adventures around the world and hopefully help you to find some inspiration for destinations, things to do or places to stay. Thanks for stopping by – stay safe and happy travelling.

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