Ehrensvärd Society

Background and activity

The Ehrensvärd Society was founded in 1921 with the purpose of informing the public about the Suomenlinna fortress and its history.

Activities

In order to achieve its goal, the Ehrensvärd Society maintains the Ehrensvärd Museum, arranges guided tours of Suomenlinna and an adventureous tour for children based on historical facts, publishes literature and develops tourist services. The Society has also produced the wide-screen presentation ”Suomenlinna Experience”, which tells about the history of the fortress.

The Ehrensvärd Society founded the Ehrensvärd Museum in the 1930s. The museum collections represent the Swedish and Russian eras in the fortress' history. The Ehrensvärd Museum has always been free of charge for school groups.

In order to finance its activities the Ehrensvärd Societies services include Café Piper, the Museum Shop and the Artillery Bay Kiosk.

Guided tours

The Ehrensvärd Society has been responsible for the guided tours of Suomenlinna since 1963. It has offered trained and authorized guides and tourist information. The Ehrensvärd Society uses the best specialists in the training of it's guides.

The Ehrensvärd Society organizes regular guided tours from 1st of June until the end of August in Finnish, English and Swedish, and in the wintertime in English. Guided tours are also available by reservation in 16 different languages. There are approximately 1000 groups a year of which 200 are school groups.

In 2007 Helsinki City Local Education department (for educational program at Suomenlinna) granted financial support for the 5th and 6th grades of the elementary school groups in Helsinki.

Adventurous tours for children

The first adventurous tour for children, ”The Quest of the Lost Crown” was introduced in 1998. More than 70 000 people have since participated on the tour and in 2007 the tour celebrated its 10th summer. Following this, in order to celebrate the success of the tour, the new tour ”The Secret of the Enchanted Vault” was introduced. In 2010 Suomenlinna's new adventure tour for children "The Commandant and the Sneaky Conspirer" sends both children and adults time travelling into the 18th century.