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Porvoo, An old storehouse

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Raimo Ketolainen

Premium (World), HELSINKI

Porvoo, An old storehouse

Porvoo (Finnish pronunciation: [?por?o?]; Swedish: Borgå [?b?r??o?]) is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately 50 kilometres (30 mi) east of Helsinki. It is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from the 14th century. Porvoo is the seat of the Swedish-speaking Diocese of Borgå of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

The Porvoo Old Town is a popular tourist destination, known for its well-preserved 18th and 19th century buildings and 15th century cathedral, the Porvoo Cathedral. The Old Town is recognized as historically and culturally significant as one of the National landscapes of Finland.

The municipality's official languages are Finnish and Swedish. In 2014, 64.6% of the population spoke Finnish as their native language, while 30.1% were Swedish speakers. 5.4% had a different native language.