Helsinki

Helsinki (Swedish Helsingfors) is the capital of Finland and chief town of the province of Uusimaa (Nyland). The city offers a variety of cultural opportunities such as the National Museum of Finland; the Helsinki City Museum; the Finnish Art Gallery, featuring classical to modern art exhibits; and three major theaters. Around the city itself, various suburbs grew up from 1950 onwards, most of them outside the city limits in the province of Uusimaa. This gave rise to administrative problems, which were resolved in the early 1960s by the establishment of the towns of Espoo/Esbo to the west and Vantaa/Vanda to the northeast - independent administrative units without established centers, which at once joined the select group of Finland's five largest towns. The only relics of the past in these towns are a few old churches and pastors' houses in gray stone.