Military heritage — guardians of the border

Merikasarmi

Helsinki

On Katajanokka's eastern tip, Merikasarmi has carried many lives — from depot fortress to Russian garrison, shipyard, and finally the Foreign Ministry. The barracks, designed by C. L. Engel from the 1810s onward, gather around the old depot courtyard.

Look for: Look to the northern frontage: the 1980s restoration finally completed Engel's grand neoclassical composition, designed in 1825 but left partly unbuilt.

Ruotsinsalmi sea fortress

Built 1790-1809 on the orders of Empress Catherine II to defend Russia's western frontier, this sea fortress is scattered across the islands off Kotka, its history shaped by the naval battles fought here in 1790.

Look for: Seek out Fort Slava on Kukouri island, a round fortress of hewn stone and brick raised in 1791-1794, and on Varissaari the memorial to the 1790 naval battle, unveiled in 1940.

Kaartin kasarmi

The Guards' Barracks block is a historic setting of the Finnish military, its buildings reflecting two centuries of architectural change in military use.

Look for: Look to the strikingly ornate façade of C.L. Engel's officers' building, with its trophy reliefs, forming the block's main face toward Kasarmitori.

Sirkkalan kasarmit

The Sirkkala barracks are among the oldest city barracks in Finland to survive in their main outlines. In 1846 Turku's grenadier sharpshooter battalion settled into the town's former poorhouse.

Look for: Pause before the main guardhouse beside the Kaivokatu gate: its principal facade is dominated by the arcade with a pediment that is characteristic of the building type.

Suomen kasarmit

Beside the old highway to Turku, the Finland Barracks recall Hämeenlinna's past as an important military centre and provincial capital. A barracks of two eras invites you to wander.

Look for: Tell apart the two building phases: the intact row of officers' wooden residences from 1882–83 on the eastern edge, and the Russian period's bare-brick buildings, such as the handsome officers' club.

Vaasan tarkka-ampujakasarmit

One of the best-preserved 1880s wooden barracks quarters opens around the Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, designed by C.A. Setterberg. Step into the calm of its grid plan and linger.

Look for: Seek out the four U-shaped company buildings flanking the central courtyard, and the decoratively finished residence of the battalion commander.

Dragsvikin kasarmit

Dragsvik is one of Finland's most notable barracks areas from the 1910s, where the Russian planners' original aims survive intact. Nearly thirty red-brick barracks line up along three streets running parallel to the shore.

Look for: Notice the dentil friezes and ornate gables of the unplastered brick barracks; beside them stands the three-storey Tammiharju hospital, designed by Axel Mörne in the late 1920s.

Haminan linnoitus- ja varuskuntakaupunki

Hamina is a singular historical fortress town whose radial plan follows the Renaissance ideal-city model. From the central square ringed by strong bastions, eight streets radiate outward, joined by two circular streets.

Look for: Seek out the late-18th-century town hall at the meeting point of the radial streets on the circular square, whose monumental central tower was built in the 1840s to designs from the Intendant's Office.

Heikkilän kasarmialue

A barracks area raised for Russia's Baltic Fleet in the early 1900s meets the seashore behind Korppolaisvuori, southwest of the Turku centre. Step into a military setting the Finnish defence forces have shaped over decades.

Look for: Look at the large troop barracks, whose baroque-tinged exterior plays with projecting bays and the alternation of bare and rendered brick; in 1967 a dining-hall wing was deftly fitted to its extension.