Hamina (Fredrikshamn)

The town of Hamina grew up on the site of the town of Vehkalahti, founded in 1653 and destroyed in the Great Northern War. A fortress was built in Vehkalahti, which had become a border town in the peace treaty of 1721, and the town was granted staple rights and given a royal name, Fredrikshamn, or Fredrik's Port, later shortended by the Finnish-speaking population to Hamina.

The construction work on the fortress was leaded by the Swedish general Axel von Löwen. The fortress is based on a 16th century renaissance fortress, where the design consists of the two squares symmetrically placed to form a star-shaped fortress.

The protruding corners of the squares form the six bastions that were named after Finnish towns. The star-shaped fortress encompasses a circular town, where the centre point of the radial main streets is the Town Hall Square. The cross streets follow the circular pattern of the fortress.

To protect the imperial capital of St Petersburg, the Russians built a mighty chain of fortresses in south-east Finland in1791 - 1792 under the leadership of General Aleksandr Suvorov. This meant building the sand bulwarks on the north-west side of the fortress into high ramparts, the Central Bastion and its outworks were added in accordance with more modern principles of fortification at the end of the 18th century.

Despite numerous fires, the internationally unique fortress town of Hamina, its ramparts and circular town plan have survived relatively well to the present time. The strong military traditions of Hamina were upheld in the 19th century by the Cadet School and in the 20th century by the Reserve Officers' School.

Read more on Hamina´s homepage