Mannerheimintie
Encyclopedia
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
), named after the Finnish military leader and statesman Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...
, is one of the most famous street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
s in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. It was originally named Heikinkatu (Henriksgatan in Swedish), after Robert Henrik Rehbinder
Robert Henrik Rehbinder
Count Robert Henrik Rehbinder was the Secretary of State for the Grand Duchy of Finland between 1811 and 1841...
, but was renamed after the Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
. The change of name was also suitable due to Mannerheim having paraded in along that road during the Finnish Civil War
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a part of the national, political and social turmoil caused by World War I in Europe. The Civil War concerned control and leadership of The Grand Duchy of Finland as it achieved independence from Russia after the October Revolution in Petrograd...
, after German forces allied with Mannerheim's Finnish forces had retaken the city. That event is also portrayed in the landmark statue of Mannerheim sitting horseback. The statue is located along the Mannerheimintie just outside of the modern arts museum Kiasma
Kiasma
Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki, Finland. Its name kiasma, Finnish for chiasma, alludes to the basic conceptual idea of its architect, Steven Holl. The museum exhibits the contemporary art collection of the Finnish National Gallery founded in 1990...
.
The street starts at Erottaja
Erottaja
Erottaja , meaning "the separator", is a public square near the centre of Helsinki, Finland.Erottaja square has been selected as the official geographic "zero point" of Helsinki. Distances to all other cities in Finland are measured starting from here. In practice, the square functions as the...
in the city centre, near the Swedish Theatre
Swedish Theatre
The Swedish Theatre is a Swedish-speaking theatre in Helsinki, Finland and is located at the Erottaja square, at the end of Esplanadi . It was the first national stage of Finland.- History :...
and continues in a northernly direction between the head office of Translizer
Translizer
Translizer Group, commonly known as Translizer, is an international technology company with offices in Portsmouth, United Kingdom and Houston, Texas. Translizer's core operation is the facilitation of foreign language translation through an aggregator search function similar to sites like...
and the Stockmann department store
Stockmann, Helsinki centre
The Stockmann department store is a culturally significant business building and department store located in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. It is one of many department stores owned by the Stockmann corporation. Annually, about 17 million customers visit the store and it is thus the largest...
. It then continues as a main thoroughfare past the districts of Kamppi
Kamppi
Kamppi is a neighbourhood in the centre of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name originally referred to a small area known as the "Kamppi field" , but according to the current official designation, "Kamppi" encompasses a much larger area with a population of 10,000 in 2004.The heart of Kamppi...
, Töölö
Töölö
Töölö is the collective name for the neighbourhoods Etu-Töölö and Taka-Töölö in Helsinki, Finland. The neighbourhoods are located next to the city centre, occupying the western side of the Helsinki Peninsula....
, Meilahti
Meilahti
Meilahti is a neighbourhood of Helsinki between Mannerheimintie and a bay named Seurasaarenselkä. Most of the houses in Meilahti were built in the 1930s and 1940s. Meilahti is home to over 6700 people including the President of Finland Tarja Halonen who lives on the shore in the President's...
, Laakso
Laakso
Laakso is a neighbourhood in Helsinki, Finland. Its borders are defined by the streets of Mannerheimintie and Nordenskiöldinkatu and the Helsinki Central Park...
and Ruskeasuo
Ruskeasuo
Ruskeasuo is a neighbourhood of Helsinki , about 3 kilometres north of the city centre....
, until it finally merges into a busy highway leading outside the city towards Hämeenlinna
Hämeenlinna
Hämeenlinna is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Häme in the south of Finland and is the birthplace of composer Jean Sibelius. Today, it belongs to the region of Tavastia Proper, and until 2010 it was the residence city for the Governor of the...
and Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
.
Many famous buildings are located at or near Mannerheimintie. Besides the theatre and department store mentioned above, these include the House of Parliament
Eduskuntatalo
Parliament House is the seat of the Parliament of Finland. It is located in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, in the district of Töölö.-History:In 1923 a competition was held to choose a site for a new Parliament House...
, the main post office, the Kiasma
Kiasma
Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki, Finland. Its name kiasma, Finnish for chiasma, alludes to the basic conceptual idea of its architect, Steven Holl. The museum exhibits the contemporary art collection of the Finnish National Gallery founded in 1990...
modern art museum, the Finlandia Hall
Finlandia Hall
Finlandia Hall is a concert hall with a congress wing in Helsinki, Finland, by Töölönlahti bay. The building was designed by Alvar Aalto. The work began in 1967 and was completed in 1971.-Design and building:...
, the National Museum and the Helsinki Opera House.
There are many famous sculptures along the Mannerheimintie. There include the Three Smiths Statue
Three smiths statue
The Three Smiths Statue is a sculpture by Felix Nylund, situated in Helsinki in Three Smiths Square at the intersection of Aleksanterinkatu and Mannerheimintie. This realistic statue, unveiled in 1932, depicts three smiths hammering on an anvil...
and the Statue of Mannerheim near Kiasma.
There are only two streets running across Mannerheimintie: Nordenskiöldinkatu overground, and Tilkanvierto below it as an underpass. There are very many other streets connecting with Mannerheimintie, but all of them either end at Mannerheimintie or continue across it under a different name.