Famous landmarks in Finland

Finland is a country in northern Europe, between Sweden, Norway and Russia, with long coastlines on the Baltic Sea. Its capital is Helsinki, and about 5.6 million people live there. Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, though it actually has many more, and for its huge forests, saunas, northern lights, the Moomins and Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle.

On My Earth Toy you can visit three churches in Helsinki: the white, green-domed Helsinki Cathedral above Senate Square; Temppeliaukio Church, carved directly into solid rock and topped with a copper dome; and the red-brick Uspenski Cathedral with its golden onion domes. Look for the western capercaillie, a big forest grouse, too.

Geography and nature

Finland is fairly flat, shaped by Ice Age glaciers that left behind tens of thousands of lakes, ridges and rocky islands. About three-quarters of the land is forest, mostly pine, spruce and birch. The south-west coast has a vast archipelago of islands. In Lapland, in the far north, the sun does not set for weeks in summer, and in winter the northern lights glow across the sky. Brown bears, wolves, reindeer and elk live in the wild.

People, languages and culture

Finnish and Swedish are both official languages, and the Sámi people of Lapland have their own languages. Finnish is related to Estonian and distantly to Hungarian. Most Finns belong to the Lutheran church. The sauna is a deep part of Finnish life; there are millions of them across the country, and Finnish sauna culture is listed by UNESCO. Children's author Tove Jansson created the Moomins, and Finnish design, music and video games are known worldwide.

History in a nutshell

For about 600 years Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809 it became a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire, with a lot of self-rule. Finland declared independence on 6 December 1917. It fought two wars against the Soviet Union during World War II but kept its independence. Later Finland built a strong welfare state and famous school system, joined the European Union in 1995 and adopted the euro.