Porvoo

The Porvoonjoki was a trade route long before there was a town: inland Tavastians carried goods down the river to the coast, and merchants traded at Saksala, "the place of the Germans". Swedish colonists from Svealand settled the area in the 13th and 14th centuries, after the crusade against the Tavastians of 1249–1250, and the town took its Swedish name, Borgå — "castle river" — from a medieval fortress near the river. It received town rights around 1380, the third in Finland after Turku and Ulvila, though a founding date of 1347 is also claimed, which would make it the second oldest.

When Sweden lost Vyborg to Russia in 1721, the bishop's seat moved to Porvoo in 1723, and for a time it was the second largest town in Finland. A fire in 1760 burned about two-thirds of its buildings, but the town was rebuilt. In 1809, after Russia had conquered Finland, Tsar Alexander I summoned the four estates to Porvoo; the Diet of Porvoo, which met from March to July, made Finland an autonomous grand duchy.

In the 19th century a new grid plan threatened the old town, but popular resistance led by Count Louis Sparre saved it, and a new wooden town was built beside it instead. The cathedral gave its name to the Porvoo Communion of Anglican and Lutheran churches in 1992. The old town and the rural municipality merged in 1997, and in 2006 the cathedral's roof was destroyed by a fire started accidentally by a youth, though the interior largely survived.

Porvoo is a bilingual town with a strong Finland-Swedish identity: it is the seat of the Swedish-speaking Diocese of Borgå, and the Swedish People's Party came first in the town at the 2015 parliamentary election. About 27 per cent of residents speak Swedish as their first language, and the island community of Pellinki, within the municipality, is overwhelmingly Swedish-speaking.

The town's cultural memory centres on J. L. Runeberg, the national poet, who lived here from 1837 until his death in 1877; his home has been a museum since 1882, and his birthday on 5 February is still celebrated there with traditions going back to the 1870s, when firemen marched with torches to honour the bedridden poet. His wife, Fredrika Runeberg, a pioneer of Finnish historical fiction, wrote most of her work here. The painter Albert Edelfelt and the sculptor Ville Vallgren are among the town's notable figures, and Borgå Gymnasium holds Finland's oldest public library, founded in 1728.

Tove Jansson spent childhood and adult summers in the Pellinki islands, and the outer archipelago's Söderskär lighthouse is said to be the model for Moominpappa at Sea. Sport has its own local pride: Borgå Akilles play bandy in the top division and have twice been Finnish champions, and the footballer Sami Hyypiä comes from the town.

The city of Porvoo has about 51,900 inhabitants, the 19th largest municipality in Finland, and the wider sub-region about 60,000. About 63 per cent speak Finnish as their first language, 27 per cent Swedish and almost 10 per cent another language, most commonly Russian, Estonian, Ukrainian or Arabic; in 2024 about 9 per cent of residents had a foreign background.

Industry carries far more weight than the postcard image suggests. The oil company Neste was the largest employer in 2014, and the Port of Kilpilahti on the town's outskirts handles more cargo by tonnage than any other in Finland; the chemicals firm Borealis and the electrical maker Ensto are also major employers. Many residents commute to the Helsinki area, and the town is the largest municipality in Finland without a scheduled passenger railway.

Life outside the old town is that of a modern Finnish small town — suburbs of flats and houses around the centre, shopping in the new town, and villages along the river and among the islands. In summer the old town fills with day-trippers from Helsinki and boats tie up at the guest marina on the river.

The town's best-known delicacy is the Runeberg torte, said to have been developed by a local pastry master and eaten by Runeberg for breakfast. It is a small torte of about 100 grams flavoured with almonds and arrack or rum, usually topped with raspberry jam inside a ring of icing. Elsewhere in Finland it is sold from January until Runeberg Day on 5 February, but some Porvoo cafés sell it all year.

Confectionery is a local speciality. Brunberg, a family firm founded in 1871, is known for its chocolate-covered foam kisses and its liquorice, and the Old Porvoo Ice Cream Factory is another local name. The town's traditional dishes come from the coast and the islands: grilled herring with onion rings and dill became Porvoo's second parish dish, after the Runeberg torte, in the 1980s, and Pellinki's fish soup and nettle soup were chosen as the main dishes of the Porvoo countryside.

Eating out centres on the old town, where Jokikatu and the lanes around it hold restaurants and coffeehouses in old wooden buildings. Across the water, the Art Factory has a bistro, and the new town has ordinary lunch restaurants and supermarkets.