Kappeli

This guide to Kappeli, the glass-and-iron pavilion on Helsinki's Esplanadi, opens with Jean Sibelius brushing off a phone call from his wife with one line staff repeated for decades. It traces the pavilion back to a humble 1840 milk kiosk, its 1867 rebuilding, and the broke, brilliant circle of artists and writers, Sibelius, Gallen-Kallela, Leino, Aho, who made it their second home. Owner Josef Wolontis let painters settle their tabs in canvases instead of cash, and in 1887 raised a shell-shaped bandstand across the path outside.