With kids

Make your visit an adventure! Experience exciting tunnels on a guided tour, see a real submarine – the Vesikko – and meet the dolls and teddy bears of the Toy Museum.

The tunnels on the islands are open to visitors and are interesting places to explore. You should bring a torch, as there is no lighting in the tunnels.

The Suomenlinna branch of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare has provided a map of the tunnels on Susisaari and Kustaanmiekka. Exploring the tunnels with the map is easy – and exciting for younger visitors. You can purchase the map from the Visitor Centre.

There are over 100 cannons and cannon barrels in Suomenlinna. You can purchase a map of the cannons from the Visitor Centre. The map shows the location of the cannons and includes information on the cannons which were brought to the islands during different eras.

The Suomenlinna Toy Museum is a perfect place for children to discover the kinds of toys their parents and grandparents used to play with. The collection consists of hundreds of old dolls, about a hundred antique teddy bears and other old toys. All the toys come from Finland. They give you an idea of the Finnish culture and how children used to play. Especially interesting, for example, are the toys and games children used to play with during the war.

Things to see and do with kids

• Visit the Vesikko submarine (15 min).
• View the old toys in the Toy Museum (30–45 min).
• Enjoy juice and sticky chocolate cake at the Toy Museum café (15 min).
• Take the Cannons & Tunnels tour (in Finnish, at 3 pm from June 1 to August 31). The tour visits tunnels and casemates closed to the general public. Bring your own torch with you to bring light to the dark tunnels! (60 min).
• Take the “Secret of the Enchanted Vault” adventure tour (about 90 min).

Suomenlinna in brief

• Suomenlinna is one of the biggest maritime fortresses in the world. Even the apartment blocks on the islands are part of the defensive wall; the outer wall of these buildings may be as much as one to two metres (3.28 to 6.56 feet) thick! Altogether the defensive wall is over six kilometres (3.73 miles) long.
• The Suomenlinna maritime fortress is over 260 years old. It is not a castle but a fortress. Fortresses were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in France, for example. Unlike Turku Castle, Suomenlinna does not date from the Middle Ages.
• The fortress was established by the Swedish king and government to protect the Swedish Empire. Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) in the east and Gothenburg in the west were built to safeguard Sweden.
• The money needed to build the fortress was donated by France because it wanted to prevent Russia from expanding further west.
• During the Swedish era more people lived in Suomenlinna than in Helsinki. People often mistakenly think that the fortress was built to protect Helsinki. When the fortress was built, Helsinki was only a small town with 1,000 residents whereas the population of Suomenlinna, located within a short distance, was significantly higher.
• Suomenlinna became the biggest construction site in the entire kingdom. It was the biggest employer in the Swedish Empire.
• Kustaanmiekka was named after Prince Gustav, the heir to the throne.
• Soldiers and craftspeople based at Suomenlinna spread Swedish and European customs, seeds, fashion and music to other parts of Finland.

Getting around

Prams and pushchairs may be hard to manoeuvre on the cobblestones. Please allow enough time to catch the ferry or waterbus.

Please note!

The walls and sandbanks are dangerous places. Visit the area at your own risk. Fenceless and grass-covered cliffs may be dangerous. Never allow children to walk around in the area unattended. Always take care when walking on the beaches because boats and other vessels may cause dangerously high waves when passing the island.