We continued our walk by the river to the Old Town side of Porvoo. In the first photo are the new shorehouses and in the next you can see the old ones, the ones that are the most wellknown sight in this town.
This is what the website tells about the old shore houses:
The shore houses are now red, but they got their colour only in the late 18th century. Red ochre paint was used to paint the shore houses in honour of King Gustav III's arrival from Sweden. All of the houses along his route were painted, in order to make them more beautiful. The red ochre also helped protect the logs from wind and sun damage. Exotic fruits, wines and spices were brought to Porvoo, and the shore houses also served as intermediate storehouses for coffee an tobacco. Today the shore houses are used as private living quarters and storage space.
I saw some paddlers on the river and one of the sighseeing "cruisers", bargass Borgå. That small wooden bridge is the first one ever built across the river in Porvoo. On the other side you can see a hill where used to be a castle hundreds of years ago - but more about that when I visit the hill itself.
On certain spots you can see framed paintings by Albert Edelfelt. He has painted those certain spots a hundred or two years ago. It was quite fascinating to see the painting and the same view in person!