The iron frame
A vaulted roof and high windows from the century's start.
--Jisis (talk) 13:13, 8 September 2008 (UTC) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Matti Similä — CC BY 4.0 · Leonhard Lenz — CC0 · Mikkoau — CC BY-SA 4.0
Hietalahti Market Hall is a brick building of 1903 at the water's edge west of central Helsinki, the second oldest covered market hall in the city. For decades it was an ordinary grocery market; it was restored in 2012 and reopened as a **food hall**: small restaurants and counters in the building rather than sales stalls. It now holds kitchens from several countries — Finnish, Spanish, Japanese, Russian and vegetarian — at prices below the central restaurants. The building is preserved with its iron frame, vaulted roof and high windows, so you eat under an early twentieth-century structure. Outside is **Hietalahti square**, which holds the flea market — the Hietalahti Lopputori — in the mornings, among Helsinki's best-known second-hand markets, running daily in summer and on limited days in winter. **Entry is free**, reached by tram from the centre in minutes.
A vaulted roof and high windows from the century's start.
Outside in the mornings, among Helsinki's best known.
Lönnrotinkatu 34, Helsinki
Kamppi Chapel of SilenceA wooden vessel of silence in the city's noisiest square: Kamppi Chapel (2012) i10 minutes walk4.3
Amos RexAmos Rex is the most talked-about building opened in Helsinki this century, and 11 minutes walk4.3
Design MuseumThe country that designed its life: the Design Museum in the Design District sou12 minutes walk4.0
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary ArtA building curving like a wave of zinc and glass in the city centre: Kiasma by t13 minutes walk4.3
Ateneum Art MuseumFinland's largest classical art collection: the Ateneum, opposite Central Statio14 minutes walk4.5Helsinki is expensive, but the differences are large. The **market halls** — this one, the **Old Market Hall** on the harbour, and **Hakaniemi** — serve good food below restaurant prices. The **lounas**, a fixed cheap set lunch served between eleven and two, is often a buffet including salad, bread and coffee — the best value in Finland, and most visitors do not know about it. University canteens are open to everyone at partly subsidised prices. And the tap water is among the purest in the world — do not buy bottles.