Klaus Kurki was a 15th-century Finnish warlord who lent his name to a hotel hewn out of blocks of Helsinki granite in 1913. When American hotelier Marc Svorc recently decided to redevelop the Klaus Kurki, he shortened its name and introduced decorative touches inspired by Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. All 137 rooms were designed according to the four emotions that infuse the great poem, which is why you will sleep in Passion, Mysticism, Desire or Envy. If that seems odd, so too may the use of glass cases containing birch trees as room dividers and the carved wooden thorns over the reception desk.
The Klaus is a self-conscious exercise in design, located at the centre of Helsinki’s trendy new design district, but it’s a place of great comfort, too. Beds are huge and leather headboards even bigger. Every room comes with more than its fair share of cushions and deep armchairs. It’s also very convenient, with free WiFi in each room and everything you’d want to see in Helsinki within easy walking distance: Pohjoisesplanadi and Eteläesplanadi, Helsinki’s prime shopping boulevards, are just around the corner. At the end of these sits the historic harbour area, with its imposing Russian and Swedish architecture, as well as a number of the city’s Michelin-starred restaurants.
If you prefer to eat in, there are two imaginative dining spaces at the Klaus. The first is Toscanini, a convincing transplant of a noisy Italian restaurant located immediately inside the main doors. Traditional Italian dishes are carefully crafted by chef Filip Forsberg who spent a year training in Rome, and wine of the month is always Italian. Up the stairs is Ilmatar, an open-plan dining area illuminated by long red Perspex strips descending from light wells. It’s named after an androgynous Finnish spirit of the air and run by the far-from-androgynous superchef Pasi Partio. Ilmatar serves Finnish food all day long from 6.30am till 11pm. A laminated card on each table shows you from where in Finland Pasi has sourced over 20 local products.
Despite its fey touches, the hotel does a roaring trade with business visitors and celebrities alike and is frequently fully booked. The concierge service is superb, consisting of energetic, down to earth young Finns who speak every language under the sun and whose informality never oversteps the mark. They are in attendance sorting out your visit right up until four in the morning, when the doors close on the dark basement bar known as Ahjo (naturally, named after the fire where Sampo, the magic mill of Kalevala, was forged).
All of these poetic touches are there for the guest to discover or ignore. Marc Svorc likes the idea that the more you ask, the more you’ll learn but it’s also quite possible to come and use the hotel, its restaurants, gym and day spa without any idea that you’re communing with the national myths of Finland.
Bulevardi 2, Helsinki
+358 20 770 4700, klauskhotel.com
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