Kauppatori, the Market Square, is where Helsinki meets its harbour: an open quay at the foot of the Esplanade, with the Presidential Palace and the city hall along one side, stalls across the middle, and the sea at the end of it.
It is also the pier for the Suomenlinna ferry, which runs all year as part of ordinary public transport. What it is no longer is a departure point for Russia — there are no ferries to Saint Petersburg, and have not been for years.
The bronze at the Esplanade end of the square is Havis Amanda, by Ville Vallgren, unveiled on 20 September 1908 — quietly, with no ceremony at all, because she had caused enough argument already. A naked woman rising out of the water with sea lions around the basin was not what the city council had in mind for its front door.
She is now the city's mascot, and the reason to know about her is May Day. On the evening of 30 April, students climb up and put a white student cap on her head, and tens of thousands of people fill the square and the Esplanade to watch. The custom goes back to around the turn of the twentieth century and has been official since 1951; it used to happen at midnight and was moved to six in the evening in the late 1970s. The statue was thoroughly restored a few years ago and climbing on her is now discouraged, the capping itself excepted.
Older accounts place Havis Amanda in the Esplanade park. She is on the square.
This is the single most useful correction here. The Vanha Kauppahalli, the Old Market Hall, stands on the Market Square itself, along the quay. Older accounts direct visitors to Hietalahti, which is a different market hall a mile away in Punavuori.
For the record, the Hakaniemi market hall is also open: it closed in 2018 for a renovation that ran five years and reopened in April 2023, with trade carrying on in a temporary hall throughout. It is a genuinely good hall and much less visited, but it is a tram ride away, not here.
The open-air market runs through the warmer months and thins out in winter. What is on it varies with the season — berries and new potatoes in summer, mushrooms and root vegetables later, fish off the quay, hot food from vans and tents, and a row of stalls selling crafts and souvenirs.
Two of those souvenirs come with a note. The knives are Finnish puukko knives; some stalls also sell Sámi-style knives and reindeer leather and horn. The correct word for the indigenous people of northern Finland is Sámi — the older term that appears in accounts of this period, and occasionally still on labels, is offensive and should not be repeated.
The other is a practical warning rather than a cultural one: this is the most heavily touristed square in the country and prices on it reflect that.
The Suomenlinna ferry leaves from the eastern side of the square, in front of the Presidential Palace. It is part of the public transport network rather than an excursion boat: the island is in fare zone A, so any ordinary ticket covering the city works, and it runs every day of the year, several times an hour in summer and at least hourly in winter. Tickets must be bought before boarding.
Two small structures on the square are protected along with the hall and the statue. The ferry pavilion and the bridge warden's booth are both original fittings of the working harbour. So is the Keisarinnankivi, the Stone of the Empress — an obelisk at the water's edge, put up in 1835 to commemorate the visit of Nicholas I and the Empress Alexandra two years earlier. Older accounts run the two dates together.
The square is governed by a detailed plan drawn up in the 1890s, which the city itself describes as unsuited to current use, and its services — water, waste, power — are at the end of their life. A replacement plan has been in preparation since 2018. Groundworks on the services are scheduled through 2026, with a fuller rebuilding of the square around the turn of the 2030s.
The practical effect is hoardings and diversions on and off for several years, including at the ferry pier. Nothing closes, but the square will not look settled.