If you sail through the Baltic Sea into the Gulf of Finland and through the South Harbour, this will be your first view of Finland’s capitol city. Since Helsinki was founded in the mid-16th century, it has struggled with a devastating plague, foreign invasions, a civil war and the rule of Sweden and Russia. But since the country’s independence in 1917, Helsingfors have prospered and become the country’s largest metropolitan area with over one million people.
