Hanko

Hanko occupies the tip of a long peninsula and is the southernmost town on the Finnish mainland, with water on three sides and around thirty kilometres of sandy shoreline, which is a great deal by Finnish standards. It grew as a spa resort at the end of the nineteenth century, and the wooden villas built then along the shore, with towers, verandas and carved gables painted in pale colours, are what most people come to see, along with the water tower, the long harbour front and a sailing regatta that fills the town in July. It was also the port from which large numbers of emigrants left for North America, recorded in a small museum.

History

Sailors knew the site by the 15th century and carved petroglyphs into the rock on the island of Hauensuoli, the "Pike's Gut". The Battle of Gangut was fought between the Swedish and Russian fleets in the archipelago north of the peninsula in 1714, and the Swedes built three forts on the outer islands at the end of the 18th century, which Russia took over in 1809. The town was founded in 1874, soon after the railway from Hyvinkää opened in 1872, and it grew as a spa resort favoured by the Russian nobility, of which the Hanko Casino, a former banquet hall, and the Hotel Continental of 1901 by Lars Sonck survive. From 1886 the Granite Company quarried Hanko granite for buildings such as the Ateneum and Helsinki Central Station, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Hanko was the main port for emigrants leaving Finland for North America, remembered by a statue of birds in flight (Wikipedia, Hanko, Finland).

What's there

• Wooden spa villas - towers and verandas along the shoreline.
• Thirty kilometres of sandy beach - unusual on this coast.
• The harbour and July regatta - the sailing week that fills the town.
• The emigration museum - the port's role in departures for America.

When to go

June to August; the town is busy in July and quiet the rest of the year. A day or two. Accommodation books out for the regatta week. Out of season much of it closes.

Good to know

It is a short summer season and outside it the town is largely shut. July is crowded and expensive, especially regatta week. The Baltic is cold even in August. Trains require a change at Karis.

Nearby

Ekenas is east; Bengtskar lighthouse lies offshore to the south.

Key facts