Old Church Park (Vanhan Kirkon Puisto), Helsinki

The Old Church Park is one of Helsinki's most beautiful parks. Its elm trees provide a haven for people to rest under during their hectic days. In the eighteenth century, the park housed a cemetery, the final resting place of thousands of people up to 1918. In 1710, half the population of Helsinki was buried in the parkvictims to the plague. Monuments in the park commemorate some of the soldiers buried here, and there is the famous statue of Finnish activist and children's writer Elias Lönnrot, the man who compiled the national epic Kalevala. Emil Wikström sculpted the statue in 1902. The most important feature of the park is the Neo-Classical Old Church, the oldest existing church in Helsinki, designed by C.L. Engel and completed in 1826. In addition to the Old Church, Engel designed a stone gate for the park's main entrance in 1928. The gate is inscribed with some memorial words for the plague victims buried in the area.