Senate Square, Helsinki Cathedral, National Library and Uspenski

When Tsar Alexander I moved the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Turku to Helsinki in 1812, he appointed German architect Carl Ludvig Engel and town planner Johan Albrecht Ehrenström to rebuild the fire-damaged wooden town into a monumental neoclassical capital modelled on St Petersburg. Their masterwork is Senate Square (Senaatintori), the most cohesive Empire-style ensemble in Northern Europe.

Helsinki Cathedral, the National Library and Sederholm House

• Helsinki Cathedral (Tuomiokirkko): crowning the northern side of the square atop a wide flight of granite steps (where locals sit in the sun with coffee in summer), the gleaming white cathedral is topped by a tall green central dome and four smaller domes surrounded by zinc statues of the Twelve Apostles on the roofline. Step inside to see the austere, calm white Lutheran nave, and walk around to the rear terrace to enter the brick-vaulted Crypt (which hosts summer cafés and exhibitions).Every day in the early evening, listen for the Sound of Senate Square, a five-minute modern glockenspiel composition ringing across the cobbles.
• The National Library of Finland (Kansalliskirjasto, Unioninkatu 36): standing immediately west of the cathedral steps, this 1840 masterpiece by Engel is the single greatest free interior in Helsinki. Leave coats and bags in the free ground-floor lockers and step quietly into the Cupola Hall and Rotunda to gaze up at the Corinthian marble columns, coffered vaults and ceiling frescoes.
• Sederholm House and the Tori Quarters (Torikorttelit): at the south-east corner of the square sits Sederholm House (1757), the oldest stone building in central Helsinki (now part of the free Helsinki City Museum). Behind it, the restored 19th-century courtyards of the Tori Quarters hold independent Finnish design shops, craft breweries and summer courtyard tables.

Crossing to Katajanokka: Uspenski Cathedral and Jugendstil Streets

Walk five minutes east past the Presidential Palace and across the canal lock onto the island of Katajanokka. Perched on a high granite outcrop overlooking the harbour stands Uspenski Cathedral (1868), the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe, built from bricks reclaimed from the Crimean War fortress of Bomarsund and crowned by thirteen onion domes gilded in 22-carat gold. Afterwards, walk five minutes further along Luotsikatu (Pilot Street) to admire Helsinki's finest row of fairy-tale 1900s Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) apartment turrets.