V isiting the tower at Olympiastadion — or Olympic Stadium in English — was not high on my list of priorities in terms of places to visit; but because it was located only slightly greater than a kilometer northeast of the Sibelius Monument, I thought I would take the walk to see it.
Why I Could Not Visit the Tower at Olympic Stadium in Helsinki
One reason as to why I already thought my visit to the tower at Olympic Stadium would be unsuccessful was that snow had been falling all morning during my walk from the Hilton Helsinki Kalastajatorppa hotel property; and even though the snowfall was light, it at times was enough to obscure viewing from a distance…
…that; and the low thick stratus cloud deck did not exactly help either.
The direct walk along a street called Humalistonkatu took fewer than 15 minutes before I arrived at Olympic Stadium, which was closed — but the tower is usually open to visitors during the day; and I was wondering weather going to the top of the tower was worth the effort.
By the way, I purposely used the word weather instead of whether.
There was obviously no event occurring at the time of my visit, which was in the morning — so I thought I would explore a little and take a few photographs.
Construction of Olympic Stadium began on Monday, February 12, 1934 for the primary purpose of attracting the Summer Olympic Games to Helsinki; and the stadium was officially inaugurated on Sunday, June 12, 1938. The stadium was designed by architects Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti.
The height of the tower at the stadium is 72 meters — or 235 feet — and visitors can supposedly view all of central Helsinki and its urban landscape.
Both the Finnish Sports Museum and a restaurant are located at Olympic Stadium.
The Olympic Stadium hosts both national and international sporting events — as well as outdoor concerts — but nothing was happening on this cold, dreary and snowy morning.
The gates were closed and locked at the ticket booth; so I could not access the inside of the stadium.
This is the base of one of the massive light posts used to illuminate the stadium at night — and, I suppose, on grey cloudy days such as this one.
Helsinki hosted the Olympic Games of 1952 in this stadium.
As I walked around — while the snow was still falling — and moved closer to the tower, I noticed that there was a gaping hole and construction equipment where the pavement to access the tower used to be located…
…and then I saw this sign, which explained that modernization and renewal of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium started in January of 2016; and that the stadium and tower are closed until 2019 because of the renovation.
Summary
If you want to visit the Olympic Stadium and its tower, you are out of luck until 2019 — and even if you visit during that year, check to ensure that the facility is indeed open once again to the public.
Due to the weather, I was not completely disappointed that I could not go to the observation area of the tower. Besides — as I wrote earlier — visiting Olympic Stadium was not high on my list of priorities in terms of places to visit; but I am glad that I at least got to see it.
All photographs ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
