The Helsinki old map shows evolutions of Helsinki city. This historical map of Helsinki will allow you to travel in the past and in the history of Helsinki in Uusimaa - Finland. The Helsinki ancient map is downloadable in PDF, printable and free.

In order to ensure the economic viability of the city, the King ordered the citizens of several other towns to relocate to Helsinki, but the order does not seem to have achieved its intended effect. The Swedish acquisition of northeastern Estonia , including Reval, at the conclusion of the Livonian War, caused the Swedish crown to lose interest in building up a competitor to Reval, and Helsingfors languished as a forgotten village for decades thereafter. In 1640, Helsinki was moved from its original location at the mouth of the historical river Vantaa (in Swedish: Vanda ), but the improved harbor failed to attract traders. It was fortified by the Swedish authorities, after Russia began to assert itself in the Baltic with the foundation of St. Petersburg, by Sveaborg / Viapori (today Suomenlinna ) to protect the city from Russian attacks as its shown in Helsinki historical map.

The historical plague of 1710 killed the greater part of the inhabitants of Helsinki. The construction of the naval fortress Sveaborg (In Finnish Viapori, today also Suomenlinna) in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki status, but it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city as you can see in Helsinki historical map. During the war, Russians besieged the Sveaborg fortress and most of the city was devastated in a 1808 fire. Czar Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland and bring the capital closer to St. Petersburg. Following the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, The Royal Academy of Turku, back then the country only university, was also relocated to Helsinki, and eventually became the modern University of Helsinki.

The historical fortifications began in 1748. When sovereignty over Finland was transferred from Sweden to Russia in 1809, the Russian government decided to relocate the Finnish capital from Turku (in Swedish: Åbo ) - on the edge of the Baltic Sea - to Helsinki. It was believed that the relative lack of Swedish influence in Helsinki, combined with its greater closeness to St. Petersburg , would make a Finnish government headquartered there easier to control. The fortress of Sveaborg also made the place less vulnerable from overseas as its mentioned in Helsinki historical map. The Russian authorities rebuilt the city, intending to turn it into a stylish modern capital along the lines of St. Petersburg.

The Helsinki vintage map give a unique insight into the history and evolution of Helsinki city. This vintage map of Helsinki with its antique style will allow you to travel in the past of Helsinki in Uusimaa - Finland. The Helsinki vintage map is downloadable in PDF, printable and free.

In the 1918 Finnish Civil War, most of Helsinki fell to the Bolshevik-backed Red Guards along with the rest of southern Finland. The vintage Senate was relocated to Vaasa as you can see in Helsinki vintage map, although some senators and officials remained hiding in the capital. After the tide of the war turned against the Red forces, German troops, fighting on the same side with the Finnish White Guard, recaptured Helsinki in April. After the White victory, approximately 13,300 Red soldiers and collaborators were confined on the former naval fortress island of Suomenlinna in Helsinki. Although the civil war left a considerable mark on the society, the standard of living in the country and the city began to improve in the following decade. Renowned architects such as Eliel Saarinen created Utopian plans for Helsinki, but they were never fully implemented.

In the aerial bombings of the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944), Helsinki was attacked by Soviet bombers. The most intense air raids took place in the spring of 1944, when 2,000 Soviet planes dropped over 16,000 bombs in and around the vintage city. However, due to a successful air defense the city was spared from the large-scale destruction that many other cities in Europe under similar scale bombings had suffered. Only a few bombs hit populated areas as its shown in Helsinki vintage map. Despite the tumultuousness of Finnish history during the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued its steady development. A landmark event was the XV Olympiad (1952 Olympic Games) held in Helsinki. Finland rapid urbanization in the 1970s, occurring late relative to the rest of Europe, tripled the population in the metropolitan area, and the Helsinki Metro subway system was built.

The relatively sparse population density of Helsinki and its peculiar structure have often been attributed to the lateness of its growth. Although much of the first half of the twentieth century was a violent period for Helsinki, the vintage city continued to develop steadily. Modern postwar urbanization did not occur on a large scale in Helsinki until the 1970s, when the population in the metropolitan area tripled, making the Helsinki metropolitan area one of the fastest growing urban centers in the European Union in the 1990s as its mentioned in Helsinki vintage map.