Foto

Actually I am really sorry Amanda that I missed your birthday by a week ... it was 20.9.
So the lady in photo is Havis Amanda whose 101th birthday was last Sunday.
This beautiful statue with fountain is probably the second most photographed attraction in Helsinki after the great white lutheran cathedral.
The statue was revealed 20.9.1908 and caused immediately a big scandal because many considered it to be too erotic. Especially women´s movement was outraged. But Havis Amanda withstood their angar and survived the Cicil War, communist bombings during the WWII and hard Finnish winters in last century... when there still were hard Finnish winters.
Havis Amanda was created by cosmopolitan Finnish sculptor Ville Vallgren who lived then in Paris and actually made the whole statue there using two young Parisian beauties as models - Léonie Tavier and Marcelle Delquini.