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Raahe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raahe (Brahestad in Swedish) is a town and municipality of Finland. Founded by Swedish statesman and Governor General of Finland Count Per Brahe the younger in 1649, it is one of 10 historic wooden towns (or town centers) remaining in Finland. Examples of other Finnish historic wooden towns are Kaskinen (Kaskö), Old Rauma, Porvoo (Borgå), Jakobstad (Pietarsaari), and Vaasa (Vasa). After a devastating fire in 1810, Raahe was rebuilt adhering to new design principles which minimized the risk of fire and enlarged some civic spaces. Old Raahe is noted for its Renaissance-inspired rectilinear town plan featuring an unusual central-square (called Pekkatori) with closed corners.
Raahe is located on the northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia in the province of Oulu and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 22,594 (2003) and covers an area of 535.65 km² of which 8.34 km² is water. The population density is 42.8 inhabitants per km². Historically an agricultural and maritime region, Ostrobothnia supplied the largest number of emmigrants from Finland to the US and other countries such as Canada and Australia during the great migration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founded as a Swedish- and Finnish-speaking town, the municipality is now unilingually Finnish.
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- Old Raahe historical information in English, Finnish, German, and Swedish.
- Raahe municipality information.
- Aerial pictures of Raahe and Old Raahe.
- Finnish Institute of Migration English pages with historical information and databases.
- Genealogical Society of Finland pages in English.