Where to stay in Vartioharju
The right area depends on your trip. Here's who each one suits — pick the place, then the hotel.
Vartioharju is residential. The district sits in the eastern Vartiokylä area of Helsinki, quiet streets near Vartiokylän kirkko rather than hotels, so visitors base themselves downtown and ride the metro out to the eastern end. You trade the centre for trees. Herttoniemi lies to the west along the line.
The larger eastern centre of Kontula sits further out toward Mellunmäki.
About Vartioharju
What are the main landmarks in Vartioharju?
The district keeps few set pieces. Vartiokylän kirkko stands as the parish church above Vartioharju, giving the low streets of this north-eastern corner of Helsinki their fixed point, while the older settlement of Herttoniemi marks the inner edge of the eastern city along the metro line. For a wider sense of Itä-Helsinki, the larger centre at Kontula lies a short way east toward Mellunmäki.
What is the history of Vartioharju?
The district grew with the eastern suburbs. As Helsinki built out toward its north-eastern fringe through the twentieth century, the Vartiokylä area filled with low housing and Vartioharju took shape among the ridges, part of the same wave that pushed the city past Herttoniemi toward the eastern edge. Vartiokylän kirkko rose to serve the spreading parish.
The big estates at Kontula and the metro terminus at Mellunmäki followed as Itä-Helsinki reached its outer bounds.
Where is Vartioharju?
Vartioharju lies in the north-eastern reach of Helsinki, in southern Finland, a quarter of low houses on the ridges of the wider Vartiokylä area, set between Herttoniemi to the west and the eastern centre at Kontula along the metro out toward Mellunmäki.
Where Vartioharju sits
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