The Olympia Terminal ( fi, Olympiaterminaali, sv, Olympiaterminalen) is a dock in the South Harbour of
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. It was designed by the Hytönen- Luukkonen architects bureau and opened for the
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...
.
Today, the terminal has a regular connection to Stockholm, acting as
Silja Line
Silja Line is a Swedish-Finnish cruiseferry brand operated by the Estonian ferry company AS Tallink Grupp, for car, cargo and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden.
The former company Silja Oy—today Tallink Silja Oy—is a subsidiary ...
's Helsinki terminal. Over 1.5 million passengers travel through the Olympia Terminal annually. A currency exchange point, an ATM and a
café
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non ...
are present in the building.
Silja Line
Silja Line is a Swedish-Finnish cruiseferry brand operated by the Estonian ferry company AS Tallink Grupp, for car, cargo and passenger traffic between Finland and Sweden.
The former company Silja Oy—today Tallink Silja Oy—is a subsidiary ...
’s
MS Silja Serenade
MS ''Silja Serenade'' is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Grupp, operating under their Silja Line brand on a route connecting Helsinki to Stockholm via Mariehamn. She was built in 1990 by Masa-Yards at Turku New Ship ...
and
MS Silja Symphony
MS ''Silja Symphony'' is a cruiseferry owned by the Estonian shipping company Tallink Group,Stockholm’s
Värtahamnen
Värtahamnen is a port in Stockholm, Sweden. Värtahamnen and the adjacent Stockholm Free Port at Lilla Värtan is Stockholm's main port. Värtahamnen primarily serves passenger ferries for the shipping company Silja Line as well as freighters for ...
, departing at 17:00.
History
The ( en, Helsinki Marine Station), was opened on 16 July 1952, just before the Olympics. The building was designed by architects Aarre Hytönen and Risto-Veikko Luukkonen. The first ship to use the new passenger pavilion was , arriving from Stockholm on the opening day. SS ''Bore I'' was also the first ship to depart from the harbour, as it set off on its return journey at 19:00. The next day, arrived and the day after that, arrived. The Olympic pier was first used by cruise ships to Stockholm.
When the Olympia Terminal was completed in 1952, it was visited by over 90,000 passengers annually, but only in summer and autumn. Silja Line started all-year-round traffic from the Olympia Terminal to Stockholm in 1972 and regular traffic to Tallinn in 1995. However, regular traffic to Tallinn from the Olympia Terminal ceased in 2005. The terminal and its ferry docks were renovated in 1989/1990 to handle larger ships. /ref> The facility includes two
cruiseferry
A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while oth ...