The Stone of The Empress

Keisarinnankivi, the Empress's Stone, is a neoclassical obelisk at the south edge of Helsinki's Market Square and the oldest public monument in the Finnish capital. Carl Ludwig Engel designed the three-meter granite stone in 1835 to commemorate Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's first visit to Helsinki a year earlier. The summit bears a gilded double-headed imperial eagle holding an orb - torn down by revolutionaries during the 1917 civil unrest and only restored in 1971. Today the obelisk stands quietly amid the Kauppatori market stalls selling Finnish salmon and cloudberries. Anyone waiting for the ferry to Suomenlinna fortress walks past it almost by default.