Helsinki Central Station

Helsinki Central Station is the main railway terminus of Finland's capital, designed by the architect Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919, replacing an earlier station on the site that had opened in 1862. Clad in red granite, the building is built in a late Art Nouveau style that also draws on modernist concrete and iron construction, and it is best known for its clock tower and for the pair of monumental lantern-bearing statues, the Lyhdynkantajat by Emil Wikstrom, that flank its main entrance. The station serves as the terminus for all of Helsinki's commuter rail lines and for long distance trains arriving in the capital, and a metro station operates within the same building, together handling around 200,000 visitors a day, roughly half of them train passengers. In 2013 the BBC named it one of the world's most beautiful railway stations.