Porvoo

Porvoo, called Borgå in Swedish, is a city on the south coast of Finland, on the Gulf of Finland in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region, roughly 50 kilometres from the centre of Helsinki. Its population is approximately 52,000, and it is the nineteenth most populous municipality in the country. It was one of the six medieval towns of Finland and is first mentioned as a city in texts of the 14th century, with town rights granted around 1380 although some claim a founding as early as 1347. The town takes its name from a Swedish medieval fortress near the river Porvoonjoki, from the Swedish borg for castle and a for river. Porvoo is a bilingual municipality, with 63 percent Finnish speakers and 27 percent Swedish speakers, and it is the seat of the Swedish-speaking Diocese of Borgå. The well-preserved Old Town and the 15th-century cathedral make it a popular tourist destination, and in 1809 the Diet of Porvoo made Finland an autonomous grand duchy.