Hamina by boat – a harbour day in a fortress town

Per Brahe founded the town in 1653 on the site of the former Vehkalahti under the name Weckelax Nystad, and it was granted foreign trade rights. The town was destroyed in the Great Northern War, and in the early 1720s construction of a circular fortress began on its site. At the same time, the circular town plan was created, and the town was named Fredrikshamn after King Frederick I of Sweden – Hamina in Finnish.

The fortress was built by the Swedish general Axel von Löwen, and its model was the star-shaped Italian Renaissance fortress of the 16th century. The Swedes built only sand ramparts, and the Russians continued the fortification work in the 1740s. The historic centre is surrounded by six bastions, named after the Finnish fortress towns of the time. After the Treaty of Hamina in 1809, Hamina was no longer a border town.

Eight streets radiate from the Town Hall Square, crossed by two ring streets that follow the shape of the fortress. The town hall on the square was completed in 1798, and after the fire of 1840 it was restored to its present Empire style to designs by Carl Ludvig Engel.

The largest bastion of the fortress, the central bastion, was built between 1803 and 1811 on the northern edge of the fortress on the shore of Kirkkojärvi. Its 58 brick vaults, or casemates, were used mainly as storerooms, and today Hamina Bastioni is an events venue where the Hamina Tattoo marching shows have been held since 1998. Hamina suits a day that combines a boat trip, a historic town walk and cafés.