Rauma

Rauma received its town charter on 17 April 1442, under Swedish rule, around a Franciscan friary founded earlier in the century. The friary's stone church, the Church of the Holy Cross, survives, along with the ruins of the town's other medieval church, Holy Trinity. The friary was disbanded at the Reformation, and in 1550 Rauma nearly lost its townspeople when King Gustav Vasa founded Helsinki and ordered burghers from Rauma to move there; many stayed, especially since mostly men went.

Fires in 1640 and 1682 destroyed practically the whole wooden town, and it was rebuilt on the old medieval street plan, which is why Old Rauma still follows its medieval layout though its oldest houses date from the 18th century. Rauma lived on the sea, exporting goods mainly to Germany, Stockholm and the Baltic lands, and its sailors and ship-owners grew prosperous; from the 18th century the town also became known for high-quality bobbin lace. The Old Town Hall dates from 1776.

After the Second World War Rauma became an industrial town of shipbuilding, paper and pulp mills and metalworking, and its port grew into one of the largest in Finland. Old Rauma was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991, and the Bronze Age cairns of Sammallahdenmäki followed in 1999, giving the town two World Heritage Sites. The Olkiluoto nuclear power station, about 20 km away, began commercial operation of its large third reactor in 2023.

Rauma has its own dialect of Finnish, rauman giäl, full of loanwords from Swedish, English and German picked up through seafaring and spelled with the letters g and b, unusual in Finnish. The writer and doctor Hj. Nortamo preserved its written form; in daily life it has largely merged into mainstream Finnish, and its strongest form is kept for folk events and as a hobby. The town is also the birthplace of Raumism, a view of the constructed language Esperanto as a vehicle for culture rather than simply an international auxiliary language.

Lace is the town's emblem. Lace Week has been held every summer since 1971, with exhibitions by local craftspeople across the old town, and it ends with the Night of Black Lace, when shops stay open late, concerts and shows run into the night and people dress in black lace. Rauma Blues has been held since 1986, and the Festivo classical music festival takes place in August. The house museums of the old town, Marela and Kirsti, show how ship-owners and sailors lived.

Ice hockey matters a great deal. Rauman Lukko, founded in 1936, plays in the top league and has won the Finnish championship twice, in 1963 and 2021, and its traditional arch-enemy is Ässät from Pori. Finnish baseball and orienteering also have local clubs.

About 39,000 people live in Rauma, the 29th most populous municipality in Finland, and about 65,000 in the wider sub-region. Around nine in ten speak Finnish as their first language and very few Swedish; about 9 per cent of residents had a foreign background in 2024, below the national average. Some 800 people live inside Old Rauma itself, and the rest in the newer districts and suburbs around it.

Industry sets the town's rhythm. The port is the fifth largest in Finland, handling almost six million tonnes of shipping a year, and serves freight ships only. Paper, pulp, shipbuilding and metalworking have been the main industries since the Second World War, and the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant stands next to Rauma in neighbouring Eurajoki.

Daily life is that of a compact Finnish town: work in the mills, the port and the services, lunch menus at midday, and evenings at the ice rink, the sports grounds or the summer cottage. Local buses are few, so most people drive or cycle, and in summer boats and the islands of the archipelago draw families out onto the water.

Rauma's traditional dishes come from its seafaring past, and in the 1980s three of them were named the town's own: lapskoussi, mashed potatoes with salted meat; topseilvellinki, a sweet soup cooked from rice and raisins and usually served with pancakes; and Rauma gingerbread. The first two come from the seafaring past, whose traditions the town now markets to visitors, and that tourism has in turn widened the range of restaurants and cafés.

Everyday food follows the Finnish pattern of a hot lunch, often a set menu, and a simpler evening meal. The market square in the middle of Old Rauma sells fresh and smoked fish, fruit and vegetables, and cafés fill the old town's wooden houses, some in their inner yards. Along Valtakatu and in the newer streets, pizza and kebab places and burger chains provide the cheap meals.

In summer a seafood restaurant opens at the Kylmäpihlaja lighthouse, reached only by boat, and the islands of the archipelago are popular for picnics and day trips while the boats are running.