Ekenäs Old Town

I have been lazy and on holiday, we have done few trips to town near us.

Ekenäs Old Town with its wooden houses spreads out to the seashore. The street names tell the story of the life of the townspeople and how they got along hundreds of years ago. Here, the streets have stayed the same since the 16th century. Street names such as the Hatter’s Street , Linen Weaver’s Street , Cloth Weaver’s Street , Smith’s Street and Tanner’s Street reveal that Barcken’s peninsula in Ekenäs once was populated by skillful craftsmen.

The grey stone church was built in the 1680s on the initiative of Count Gustaf Adolf Leijonhufvud. The church was badly damaged in a fire and owes its present appearance to the reconstruction in the mid-1800s. The latest restoration was made in 1989-1990. There are several valuable items in the church, including a pulpit from the 1600s.

Most of the buildings in the Old Town date from the late 18^th and the 19^th century, but the area grew out of a 16^th century fishing village that the Swedish king Gustav Vasa granted a town charter in 1546 – a few years before Helsinki. 

In the summer, you can peep over the fences to the enclosed courtyards. The small signs with names of fish, as given to the blocks in the 19^th century, and the cast-iron lamp posts give the face of the Old Town that little extra. The small street mirrors or “gossip mirrors” in the windows, elegantly crafted garden gates and the intricately decorated window frames are all details worth spending time looking at.