Museums in Helsinki

The Ateneum Art Museum houses Finland's largest classical art collection—Finnish Golden Age paintings, including Akseli Gallen-Kallela's Kalevala illustrations and Helene Schjerfbeck's modernist portraits.

The National Museum of Finland traces Finnish history from prehistory to the present in a castle-like National Romantic building. The lobby's Kalevala frescoes by Gallen-Kallela set the tone.

Kiasma is Finland's premier contemporary art museum, housed in Steven Holl's curving 1998 building. Its five floors host rotating exhibitions of Nordic and international contemporary art, media, and performance.

The Design Museum chronicles Finland's world-renowned design heritage—Marimekko, Iittala, Alvar Aalto—through permanent and rotating exhibitions in a 19th-century school building in the Design District.