Halls of Kalevala

Our journey through the Halls of Kalevala
Starts from the northern entrance
Please follow me

Ladies and gentlemen, this building
Is an epitome of architecture
The art that gives shelter to and leads
All the other arts to the future and beyond

We have arrived at a wing housing thirty-six chambers of innovation
It's a stronghold of research for the brightest minds
Please heed the warning signs

As we move on, notice the large empty spaces on the walls
During the next few hundred years they will all be filled
With tomorrow's master painters' frescoes

And now, the very heart of the building, the Pantheon

It's time to get down
Down to "Tuonela," the Underworld
A crypt of the champions
The final resting place for the great and the good
It is believed they will rise from their tombs
When the worst danger threatens the motherland

Be careful, the stairs are slippery

This way, please

Here, on this exact spot where I stand now
Eliel Saarinen's visiting colleague Le Corbusier
Promptly threw himself on the floor and tantrummed
"This monstrous building, like a charnel-house
Is strewn with the detritus of dead epochs"
Fortunately, the possibly awkward situation was averted
When Saarinen quickly produced a little packet from his coat pocket
"Charlie, I bet I'm more modern and functional than you are
I drew the first plans of this house on a pack of 'worker man' cigarettes"
And here we have the original pack
You can take photos, but no flash, thank you
Replicas are available at the gift shop (The gift shop)

Now we have finally come to the last section of our tour
A purgatory of stairs
Four-hundred-and-four steps to be precise
That we need to ascend
In order to reach the paradise at the top of the tower
A breathtaking panorama embracing in one glance
The entire glorious city and its magnificent surroundings