The Suomenlinna Church (Finnish: Suomenlinnan kirkko),was built as an Eastern Orthodox garrison church for the Russian troops of Suomenlinna sea fortress in 1854, and originally had five onion domes.The church was designed by Konstantin Thon, an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of czar Nicholas I,and whose major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour,the Grand Kremlin Palace,and the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow.
The fortress comprises five islands joined together by bridges, and the church is the central feature on the island of Iso Mustasaari surrounded on all sides by fortification works.The Orthodox church was converted into an Evangelical Lutheran church during the 1920s.Today its central dome doubles as a lighthouse making it one of only a few churches in the world that double as a lighthouse.The signal blink is the Morse code for the letter “H” for Helsinki.The church bell, the largest in Finland, was cast in Moscow in 1885 and weighs 6,683 kilos.
