Hamina

Hamina was laid out in 1723 as a fortress town on a plan taken from Italian Renaissance theory: a central octagonal square with streets radiating from it and concentric rings crossing them, the whole enclosed by a bastioned earthwork. It is the only town in Finland built to that pattern and the plan is still legible, with the town hall in the middle of the octagon and the ramparts surviving as grassed banks and casemates around the centre. Two churches face each other across the square. The town remains a garrison and holds a military music festival every other summer that fills it, and the bastion walls are walked as a circuit.

History

The municipality of Vehkalahti is first mentioned in 1336, and in 1653, on the proposal of Count Per Brahe, the area around its church received a town charter as Vehkalahden Uusikaupunki; the town was wrecked in 1712, during the Great Northern War. After Vyborg passed to Russia in 1721, the town was rebuilt in 1722-1724 to replace it as a trading centre and named Fredrikshamn in 1723 after King Frederick I, a name Finnish speakers shortened to Hamina; its star-shaped fortress and circular plan, designed by Axel Löwen on Italian Renaissance models, are a rare type of which Palmanova in Italy is another example. Russia gained the town in 1743, the treaty of 1809 by which Sweden ceded Finland was signed here, and the Hamina Cadet School trained officers from 1819 to 1903, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim among them (Wikipedia, Hamina).

The main sights

• The octagonal central square - the town hall at the centre of the plan.
• Radiating and concentric streets - the Renaissance layout still legible.
• Bastion earthworks and casemates - the fortification ring around the town.
• Two churches on the square - the Lutheran and Orthodox buildings facing each other.

When to go

May to September; the military music festival falls in early August in alternate years and fills the town completely. Half a day. Museums close on Mondays.

Practical notes

The plan is best appreciated from a map or from the air; at street level it is less obvious than expected. The town is small with limited services out of season. Festival years mean full accommodation across the region.

Nearby

Kotka is west; the Russian border lies east.

Key facts