Day 10 – Helsinki, Finland – Friday, September 7, 2012

In my post about St. Petersburg, I left out an important place we visited, so I wanted to back up and mention the Church of the Spilled Blood. Besides I have a rare picture of me in front of it.

Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

As you can hopefully see in the picture, it is a beautiful church with multicolored and gilded domes. It was built in honor of Czar Alexander II, who was murdered by terrorists on that very site in 1895. Many of the czars deserved that fate perhaps, but not Alex II, who was the “Liberator Czar,” having freed the serfs from their virtual slavery and implementing many other reforms. But the terrorists were determined to overthrow the royal family, which did happen 22 years later, as his successors were weak and incompetent rulers, bringing about the revolution. The royal carriage which was bombed is displayed inside the church on the exact spot on which the dire deed took place, and his blood stains are still there 117 years later.

Incredibly, the Lenin government, which closed and destroyed many churches, was going to blow up the entire building, but decided not to because it was too close to residential buildings. So they turn it into a warehouse! After the communists lost power in 1991, it again became a place of worship, but it took 17 years to completely restore the interior.

OK, on to Helsinki. I remember again coming to Helsinki on the Promise tour, as we flew from Moscow to Helsinki, thence on to the USA. It seemed to me at the time that we had been in a black and white movie in Russia, and suddenly stepped into technicolor in Finland, a la Wizard of Oz movie. The contrast was not quite so stark this time, but Finland is such a beautiful country with smiling people, good government and economy, and so technologically advanced, ranked # 1 in the world in that category. (USA is #2.)

18th Century Rural Lutheran Church

I picked a tour which took us to Finland's version of an open air museum, a staple in Scandinavian countries. It was called Seurasaari and it contains rural houses and churches as they were in 18^th century and earlier times, including very crude homes of Lapplanders, the people of the Arctic Circle. We walked about, experiencing what life was like without running water, indoor plumbing, central heating, electricity, and... the internet!! Interesting that in those days, the Lutheran church was the civil authority in small towns, meting out punishment to miscreants. We were treated to delicious cinnamon buns and coffee in the equivalent of a cafe in the 18^th century, a nice respite under cover, as we were walking around in a light rain. (Our extremely good fortune with the weather came to an end today.)

Sibelius Park Monument - Helsinki

An obscure Ohio composer with a world famous composer

On the way back into town, we stopped at Sibelius Park. My musical friends will know Jean Sibelius and Finland's greatest composer, producing seven symphonies and a large body of other works. He is most famous for “Finlandia,” composed to keep the Finnish national spirit alive when threatened by Russia. I've had the privilege of conducting that dramatic piece several times. So the park is unusual, in that the principal monument is a sculpture that resemble organ pipes and do produce sound when the wind is right. This monument to Sibelius was so controversial that the sculpter put up the portrait of Sibelius next to the pipes to mollify the critics.

Next stop was Senate Square, dominated by the Lutheran Cathedral, a magnificent structure. As with all the other Scandinavian countries we have visited, although nominally Lutheran (80-90%), most people do not go to church, except for weddings and funerals.

Tomorrow Stockholm.