Sveaborg u. Helsingfors

Title

Sveaborg u. Helsingfors

Description

View of the city Helsinki

ca. 1845

Artist

Kunstanstalt Hildburghausen (1828-1874)

The German publishing company Bibliographisches Institut was founded 1826 in Gotha by Joseph Meyer, moved 1828 to Hildburghausen and 1874 to Leipzig. Its production over the years includes such well-known titles as Meyers Lexikon.

Historical Description

The landscape of Uusimaakam, located on the southern coast of Finland, came under the rule of Sweden in the 12th century and was taken over by new Swedish settlers. The name probably derives from the Swedish landscape Hälsingland, the home region of the new settlers. The city of Helsinki (Helsingfors) was founded on 1550 by order of the Swedish King Gustav I Wasa. The Swedish name Helsingfors is derived from a rapids on the lower reaches of the Vantaanjoki River. Helsinki was founded to create a rival port to the Hanseatic city of Tallinn (Reval) on the other side of the Gulf of Finland. However, only a little later, in 1561, Sweden conquered Tallinn in the Livonian War, which hampered Helsinki's further development. Therefore, in 1640, under the leadership of Governor General Per Brahe, Helsinki was moved about five kilometers closer to the open sea to the site of today's city center. The old city at the mouth of the Vantaanjoki was abandoned. The strengthening of the Russian Empire and the founding of the city of Saint Petersburg in 1703 had a significant influence on Helsinki. From 1713 to 1721, and again during the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-1743, Helsinki was under Russian occupation. After Sweden had to cede the Hamina fortress to Russia in the Peace of Turku, the sea fortress Sveaborg was built off the coast of Helsinki in 1748 as protection for Sweden's eastern border. In 1808 Helsinki was captured by Russian troops during the Russo-Swedish War. As a result of the lost war, Sweden had to cede all of Finland to Russia in 1809. The capital of the newly founded Grand Principality of Finland was initially Turku, the largest and most important city in the country until then. From the point of view of Tsar Alexander I, however, Turku was too far away from St. Petersburg, so he decreed Helsinki as the new capital in 1812. From 1819 Helsinki was the seat of the Finnish Senate and thus finally the capital of the Grand Duchy. Railroad connections to Hämeenlinna and St. Petersburg were established in 1862 and 1870, respectively. When the Finnish Parliament declared independence in December 1917, Helsinki became the capital of the new state. At the beginning of the 20th century, Helsinki's urban area was still limited to the Helsinginniemi peninsula. Today, this area is called the core city. The city was surrounded by the territory of the rural municipality of Helsinki , the remains of which form today's Vantaa. In the course of the century, parts of the rural municipality were repeatedly incorporated into the city of Helsinki.