Eliel Saarinen in the context of "Golden Age of Finnish Art"

Helsinki Central Station (Finnish: Helsingin päärautatieasema, Swedish: Helsingfors centralstation) (HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom are train passengers. The station serves as the terminus for all trains in the Helsinki commuter rail network, as well as for all Helsinki-bound long-distance trains in Finland. The Rautatientori (Central Railway Station) metro station is located in the same building.

The railway tracks in Helsinki were built in the 1860s. The station building, clad in granite, was designed by Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919. The building is known for its clock tower and the Lyhdynkantajat ("The Lantern Bearers") statues by Emil Wikström. Helsinki Central was chosen as one of the world's most beautiful railway stations by BBC in 2013. The Helsinki Central Station has become the symbol of the entire railway network in Finland. For example the VR Group uses the image of the station and the statues next to its main entrance in its advertising.

Eero Saarinen (/ˈeɪroʊ ˈsɑːrɪnən, ˈɛəroʊ -/, Finnish: [ˈeːro ˈsɑːrinen]; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer. Saarinen's work includes the General Motors Technical Center; the Dulles International Airport Main Terminal; the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport; the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center; the Gateway Arch; and the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. During his career, Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and served on the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Born in Hvitträsk, Finland, he was the son of Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Saarinen grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where his father taught. Saarinen became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940, a year after marrying the sculptor Lilian Swann, with whom he had two children. After divorcing Swann in 1954, Saarinen married Aline Bernstein Louchheim. In 1961, Saarinen died while undergoing an operation for a brain tumor.

Gesellius, Lindgren, Saarinen was a Finnish architecture firm, founded in Helsinki in 1896 by architects Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen.

They achieved international recognition with their design for the Finnish pavilion at the Paris World Expo in 1900, designed in the then prevailing Art Nouveau style. From 1901 to 1904, the three architects designed and built an extensive studio home for themselves and their families called Hvitträsk, in the rural community of Kirkkonummi by the Vitträsk [fi] lake. In 1905, the company ceased operations and the National Museum of Finland was their last work. Its construction was monitored by Lindgren alone.

The architecture of Finland has a history spanning over 800 years, and while up until the modern era the architecture was highly influenced by Sweden, there were also influences from Germany and Russia. From the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield: first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country and then when the Finnish architect profession became established.

Furthermore, Finnish architecture in turn has contributed significantly to several styles internationally, such as Jugendstil (or Art Nouveau), Nordic Classicism and Functionalism. In particular, the works of the country's most noted early modernist architect Eliel Saarinen have had significant worldwide influence. Even more renowned than Saarinen has been modernist architect Alvar Aalto, who is regarded as one of the major figures in the world history of modern architecture. In an article from 1922 titled "Motifs from past ages", Aalto discussed national and international influences in Finland, and as he saw it:

Munkkiniemi (Finnish: [ˈmuŋkːiˌnie̯mi]; Swedish: Munksnäs, Helsinki slang: Munkka) is a neighbourhood in Helsinki. Subdivisions within the district are Vanha Munkkiniemi, Kuusisaari, Lehtisaari, Munkkivuori, Niemenmäki and Talinranta.

The land in Munkkiniemi was from the 17th century a part of Munksnäs manor. In the 1910s grandiose plans were made to expand all of western Helsinki with tens of thousands of new inhabitants, the so-called Munkkiniemi–Haaga Plan by Eliel Saarinen. The construction of the new areas started slowly and it wasn't until the 1930s that a more extensive construction phase began in Munkkiniemi. From 1920 to 1946 Munkkiniemi was part of Huopalahti municipality. Huopalahti including Munkkiniemi was incorporated with Helsinki in 1946.

Lyhdynkantajat (Finnish for "the lantern bearers") is a group of sculptures at the main entrance to the Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland. The sculptures were designed by Emil Wikström and completed in 1914. Lyhdynkantajat is part of the façade of the Art Nouveau station designed by Eliel Saarinen.

The sculptures consist of four male figures made of granite, bearing spherical lamps in their hands. The square-jawed figures have muscular chests, but the bottom parts of their bodies consist of columns decorated in a way typical to Saarinen. The men have haircuts typical of the Awakening movement. It is said that the peasant Jalmari Lehtinen, born in the late 19th century, posed as a model for the figures. Lehtinen, who had worked as a gardener in Wikström's Visavuori home studio, had served as the model for some of Wikström's earlier sculptures as well. The Visavuori art museum contains many competition sketches of the Lyhdynkantajat sculptures. The granite figures have probably been made at the Ab Granit Oy factory in Hanko, like the pedestal of the Elias Lönnrot monument. The actual sculpting was done by a sculptor named Talja and his son. The bear figures of the old Vyborg railway station in Vyborg, Russia were also made by the aforementioned men.