Matti Laaksonen

I worked summers on the ferry out to Suomenlinna before I studied history properly, so the crossing itself still feels as familiar to me as the fortress at the end of it. On camera I walk the sea fortress island by island, explaining how its defences were built to cover the whole approach to the harbour rather than a single point. I point out the dry dock still in use today alongside walls built in the seventeen hundreds. I keep sessions grounded in what is actually visible rather than speculation about what the island once looked like.