Old Town Raahe is one of Finland's best-preserved wooden towns from the 1800s, featuring around 150 historic residential buildings. The "Stories of Old Town Raahe" article series showcases historical sites, figures, and tales from the area. This series is produced in collaboration with the Raahe Museum and Raahe tourist guides, with photos from the Raahe Museum collection. Check out a new story each week!
In the 1600s, a law restricted trade to designated markets. Charles IX ordered merchants to move to coastal ports, one being Saloinen. In 1616, Saloinen was granted a free market starting on St. Olaf’s Day, lasting two weeks. Merchants arrived from various cities, and farmers sold goods like tar and butter.
When Raahe was founded, the market moved from Saloinen to Rantatori, next to the museum. After Raahe’s 1810 fire, market trade changed, moving to the newly built Isotori (now Pekkatori) in the town center. Animal trade shifted to Härkätori, while fish trading remained at Rantatori.
Pekkatori, designed after the fire by Gustaf Odenwall, is a well-preserved Italian Renaissance-style square. It’s one of the best-preserved wooden town squares in Finland, surrounded by 19th-century wooden classicist buildings. Many prominent Raahe families, including merchants, councilmen, and shipowners, built homes around it.
Pekkatori became a famous market square. In the 1800s, Raahe held three annual markets: a month-long butter market in September, an autumn market in October, and a Candlemas market in February. Agricultural products, timber, livestock, and fish were sold. Bartering was common, with patrons trading goods like timber for salt and tobacco. The markets also featured entertainment like dances and fairs with carousels. Market police were necessary to control unruly behavior.
In 1888, when a statue of Pietari Brahe was erected in Pekkatori, trading moved back to Rantatori. Animal trade continued at Härkätori. Pietari Brahe, also known as Pekka, founded Raahe in 1649. He was appointed governor-general of Finland, improving the education system, postal service, roads, and inns. Many Finnish cities owe their existence to Brahe. The statue in Pekkatori was sculpted by Walter Runeberg, and the local festival Pekanpäivät is celebrated in his honor each summer, with a flower wreath placed on the statue. Brahe is also honored with a street named Brahenkatu in Old Town Raahe.
Back in the mid-1600s, when Count Per Brahe founded Raahe (then known as Salo), he needed a strong, enterprising man to manage tax revenues. He chose the loyal Henrik Corte, a German who came to Raahe from Stockholm. Tasked with establishing the town’s harbor, Corte initially hesitated to move from Oulu to undeveloped Raahe, but the decision proved fortunate.
Marrying a local merchant’s daughter, Kristina Forbus, Corte quickly rose in influence, holding council sessions in the Town Hall. Known for his iron-fisted leadership, he often clashed with other merchants but maintained good relations with farmers. Corte’s trade with Stockholm made him a wealthy man, and most of Raahe’s trade flowed through him.
As Corte aged, his son, Henrik Henrikinpoika Corte, took on the title of deputy mayor. Following his father’s death in 1680, the younger Corte became mayor and later served in the parliament. Known for his fiery nature, he married three times and had a son, Gabriel Corte, who succeeded him. Gabriel’s tenure as mayor was interrupted by the Great Northern War, during which the Corte family, like many others, fled to Sweden. Gabriel returned post-war and resumed his mayoral duties.
Henrik Corte’s impressive house once stood next to the market square but was destroyed during wartime. Today, the Sovelius House occupies the site, with Corte Street named in honor of this influential family.
Raahe’s first town hall was built in 1654 by the square (now Myhrberg Park). This original structure, on the site of today’s Heikku house, was burned down by the Russians during the Great Wrath. A new town hall was constructed in 1729 on the same spot, but it too was destroyed in the Great Fire of Raahe in 1810. Following the fire, surveyor Gustaf Odenwall designed a new city plan with a square at its center (now Pekkatori), flanked by the homes of Raahe’s prominent families. The southwest corner was reserved for a future town hall, but the plan was never executed. Eventually, in 1862, the city purchased a building from the estate of customs officer Gustav Robert Brunow, constructed by the renowned architect Anders Frederik Granstedt in 1839, to serve as the new town hall.
Upon purchase, the building required significant work: the walls were plastered, painted white, and fitted with a tin roof. The first floor was completed, though the second floor remained unfinished. During Raahe’s 300th anniversary in the 1940s, major renovations were undertaken, adding new entrances, transforming the attic, and refreshing the floors and walls. In the 1960s, rising ground levels exposed the original foundation logs, which began to decay upon air exposure, necessitating further repairs. The foundations were reinforced, adding 400 square meters of usable cellar space and more work areas on the second floor. In 2004, an extensive restoration returned the entrances to their original locations on the courtyard side.
In the town hall’s ceremonial hall hangs a famous 1894 painting by Swedish marine artist H. Af Sillén, depicting the Swedish navy in training maneuvers. This artwork was won by local shipowner Henrik Sovelius in a Stockholm art lottery, despite Swedish King Oscar II tried to buy the painting from Sovelius. Sillén had previously painted three similar works, owned by the King of Bulgaria, German Emperor Wilhelm II, and King Oscar II himself.
