Set on the shore of Töölönlahti Bay in Helsinki, this 6.38-hectare park was laid out by city gardener Svante Olsson on the site of former factories and villas. Its name goes back to early 19th-century Romanticism and the Hesperides of Greek myth, and the Finnish National Opera opened in its northern part in 1993. Among the large trees are ornamental apples, oaks and maples, and there is a statue of the rune singer Larin Paraske and Opera Ophidia, a snake-shaped steel mesh sculpture filled with boulders.
A playground among the lilacs has swings, and the Opera amphitheatre is a place to rest or watch small events. A 2.2 km wheelchair-accessible walking route circles the bay.
