Admission fee 1.6.-27.9.2026: Mon–Thu 9-17, Fri 9–14, and Sun 12-17.
Free admission during summer season 1.6.-27.8.2026: Mon–Thu 19–21.30.
Discount groups: Students, pensioners, people over 65, groups of more than 10 people, unemployed persons, conscripts and those performing civilian service.
Note! Discount groups do not apply in September, as all visitors can enter the church at a reduced price.
Free admission: Members of the Helsinki Cathedral Parish and their parties, visitors under 18, Church Pass holders, school and student groups, Helsinki Guides, media representatives, tour leaders accompanying a group, people with reduced mobility, war veterans, and personal assistants.
School and student groups are eligible for free admission provided that the group moves through the church together and is accompanied by a responsible teacher or early childhood educator.
Group reservations: The group does not need to book a specific time slot in advance. You may arrive during the church opening hours. The group leader should bring a voucher with him/her when arriving at the site. Just make sure before you arrive that there are no other activities, such as daily prayer going on in the church at the same time.
The Helsinki Cathedral offers various guided tours, the exact timetables of which can be found on the Helsinki Cathedral website.
Helsinki Cathedral - a beautiful building of great historical importance - is an Evangelical Lutheran church and for many people, a symbol of Helsinki as a whole. The Cathedral forms part of Helsinki’s Empire-style city centre. It was designed by the Prussian (German) architect Carl Ludwig Engel (1778–1840) in the early 19th Century, when Helsinki became the new capital of the then Grand Duchy of Finland. The Cathedral is said to be inspired by the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The first sketches for the Cathedral were completed as early as 1818. After Engel’s death the work was continued by Ernst Bernhard Lohrmann (1803–1870), another Prussian architect.
The church was finally consecrated in 1852 and named the Church of St Nicholas. Following Finland’s independence in 1917 it became known as the Great Church. When the Diocese of Helsinki was established in 1959, the name was changed into Helsinki Cathedral. It is one of the ten cathedrals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.