Travelog post for: Leonard

After Castle Hill we walked down by the river to see the Old Porvoo. The small bridge is the first built in Porvoo. The red shorehouses serve as storage and living quarters nowadays. They are the most well-known attraction of this city.

The cannon is from the World War II and naturally not operative anymore. The "peek-a-boo" couple is new, they have put such things all over the old town because it has been 200 years since the Porvoo Diet in which Finland was promoted as a nation among nations. They have had festives due to this event too.

This is what the homepage says about the Diet: "In 1809, the War of Finland was still being fought between Sweden and Russia when the Russian emperor Alexander I convened the estates of Finland for a diet in Porvoo. The representatives gathered in the town for four months, from March to July. In the closing ceremony, Alexander I gave his famous speech promoting Finland to ‘a nation among nations’. This was a turning point on Finland’s way toward independence. The ties with Sweden, that had held tight for nearly 700 years, were severed, and Finland became a part of the Russian Empire. Granting of the status of autonomous grand duchy guaranteed Finland internal self-government. The Finns got to keep their own laws and religion, and the estates their special rights."