porvoo
Porvoo is considered to be one of the most beautiful towns and it is one of the most popular summer towns in Finland.
Porvoo is considered to be one of the most beautiful towns and it is one of the most popular summer towns in Finland.
Porvoo town was founded in 1380 BC. It has a population of about 50.000 people with 64% of them beeing finnish-language speakers. It’s located 50km from Helsinki, which makes it an easy daytrip.
We used public trasportation to reach our destination. There is not train connection to Porvoo but there are buses, leaving every hour.
We stayed at Porvoo Hostel. It is in a quiet neighborhood in a walking distance from the center. Porvoo Hostel is located in an old maternity hospital built by Alva Forsius. Alva initially worked as a teacher in a craft school, but later trained as a midwife. She had a strong desire for social assistance work and she set up a private maternity hospital in Porvoo. She also set up a mother-child home in Porvoo, which was the first of its kind in Finland.
There is an amazing public swimming hall right next to the hostel. With just 3.5€ you can spent your hours swimming, going to sauna and/or sliding water slides. Porvoo’s old town is in the center of the town, next to the river. It’s very nice to walk there and explore its narrow streets. There’s plenty of restaurants, cafes, bars and shopping stores.
There is of course forest surrounding Porvoo and it is quite relaxing to walk in the forest. Porvoo has good biking paths and you can rent a bike with just 5€/day.
Porvoo church first became a cathedral in 1723. The church was originally made of wood but later it was expanded with stone walls. The church has been destroyed by fire numerous times with the most recent to be in 2006. An 18-year-old man was convicted of arson.
