The 9 Best Things to Do in Porvoo, Finland

Finland’s wooden towns are famous the world over, for their glorious preserved wooden homes, often red painted.  With a maze of cobbled streets and what looks like randomly shaped and sized plots, the most well-known of these is Porvoo, Finland’s second oldest town.  This is a delightful and easy place to visit in Finland and it’s a wonderful place to come for the day or longer.  Here’s our guide on the best things to do in Porvoo, Finland.

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Finland’s second oldest town (after Turku), is a gloriously preserved medieval-era wooden town.  Red-painted wooden warehouses front the Porvoo River, which flows sluggishly past, at least in early summer.  Streets lined with cobblestones lead to the market square, the King’s Hotel, and the home of Johan Ludvig Runeberg.  This place is an absolute delight. It reminds me in many ways of the small town of Sigtuna in Sweden that we visited earlier in our trip.

The Best 9 Things to Do in Porvoo

As it is only 40 minutes from Helsinki, visiting Porvoo is a popular day trip from Helsinki.  We however, came here from Turku (here’s our guide to Turku), after we’d spent a day exploring the Finnish Archipelago (our guide to that perfect Archipelago day is here).

Porvoo is a perfectly lovely old town to visit.  There are plenty of cafes to stop off for a bite to eat, but there are also some fabulous green spaces for a picnic

1.     Explore Porvoo’s Old Railway Station

Located on the opposite side of the river to the Old Town, this was the first place that we started, as we’d parked on this side of the river.  I mean we love trains.  The only trains that run to Porvoo now are occasional summer services, which are run by the Porvoo Museum (their timetable is here).  And there hasn’t been a regular rail service here since 1981.

The station here has been converted into rather lovely places to live,  but they’re private, so please don’t pry or try and see through the windows.  Mainly you can wander around the remains of the goods yard and see some of the rusting old rolling stock.  And lupins.  There are lots of lupins alongside the track during spring!

There’s a small note on the wall of one building indicating the children were moved from here during World War II, between 1939 and 1945.  During World War II more than 70,000 children were evacuated from Finland, primarily to Sweden but also to Norway and Denmark.  There was huge economic hardship in Finland after the war, and some 20% of those children who were evacuated remained with their foster parents.   The novel, “Äideistä parhain” by Heikki Hietamies, and the subsequent 2005 film based on the novel, “Mother of Mine” dramatizes the life of just one of these children. 

As you head back towards the river, you’ll get lovely views of the riverside warehouses, which are particularly picturesque.

2.     Porvoo Riverside Warehouses

Most of these houses that line the River Porvoo were built in the 1760s.  They would have originally been warehouses.  One was converted into a customs house for the town in the 19^th century. Today they house places to stay, restaurants, and shops.  The best views of them are from the either directly opposite on the riverbank or from the major, “New Bridge” (Uusi silta)

3.     Porvoo Cathedral

The oldest parts of Porvoo’s cathedral date to the 13^th century, but most of what you see today is from the 15^th century. The Cathedral is of the denomination of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.  The Lutheran Church is Finland’s largest religious body, with 62% of Finns being members of the church.  The cathedral that we saw in Turku was also Lutheran.

The original church here was made of wood and it has been destroyed (mostly by fire) several times.  In 2006 it was as a result of an arson attack.  The church became a cathedral in 1729 and is most famous for being the location where the “Diet of Porvoo” was signed in 1809 – Instead of being ruled by Sweden, Finland then became a Grand Principality of Russia.  It was the first move towards Finnish independence, which eventually came about in 1917.

Both the exterior and the interior are very plain, but they have some particularly distinctive items inside which I’d never seen in a church or cathedral before.  First of all, there was a ship hanging from the ceiling.

These are known as votive ships and are given to churches by seamen and shipbuilders.  They’re particularly common in the Scandinavian countries and the practice dates back to the Middle Ages.

And then there’s the unicorn.  It appears Unicorns were mentioned in the Bible. Nine times.  The unicorn is apparently considered an image of Christ in medieval iconography.  Something to do with the image of purity and knowledge.  There’s more on that here. But, yes this was my first unicorn in a church.

4.     Picnic in Maari Park

I’m putting this in here now, because right about now we started to get hungry, and we’d brought a picnic with us. With the glorious sunshine that we were having, it seemed that we should take the opportunity to eat outside.

This park, close to the cathedral, has a few benches, and leafy trees to sit under if the sun is too strong and it was lovely to sit and watch the river go by.  It’s peaceful and close to the old town.

5.     Iso Linnamäki Castle Hill

Lunching in Maari Park puts you in the right place to take a walk up Iso Linnamäki Hill – also known as Great Castle Hill.  It’s here that you’ll find the ruins of one of the largest ancient Finnish fortresses.  There’s a small hill next to it called Less Castle Hill and that’s the site of an Iron Age burial ground, not re-discovered until 1965! The view from here was made famous by local artist Albert Edelfelt in “Porvoo seen from Linnamäki”

6.     Explore Old Porvoo

You have already been in Old Porvoo because we’ve seen the cathedral, but now it’s time to just wander around and through the narrow cobblestone streets and explore the wooden-painted houses, shops, and restaurants.  

On the building at Jokikatu 57, you’ll find a plaque placed by an Irish Politician and Minister, Desmond O’Malley in 1981 to Johan Anders Jägerhorn.  Jagerhorn, who died here in Porvoo in 1825, was one of the originators of Finnish Independence.  He had taken place in a plot against the Swedish King in Finland in 1788, was condemned to death, and exiled to Germany, where he worked as an intermediary between the Irish and French before the 1798 rebellion.  He spent two years in the Tower of London before returning to Finland.  Finland became independent on 6 December 1917.  The plaque is placed on the side of the house that he lived in from 1818 to 1825.

7.     See Porvoo’s Town Hall and Museum

Porvoo’s town Hall is the oldest town hall in Finland, dating back to 1545.   There’s a permanent museum in there these days and it’s a lovely pretty building.

8.     Visit J L Runeberg’s Home

Johan Ludvig Runeberg is Finland’s National Poet.   He was a priest and a poet.  He wrote in Swedish, but then he did live between 1804 and 1877 when Finland was part of Sweden. He authored “Vårt land (Our Land)”, which became the unofficial Finnish National Anthem.  The home where he and his wife and 8 children lived is open to the public as a museum, where works of art and his hunting weapons are on display.  The garden here is glorious, there are a variety of different areas and it’s a delight to just sit here for a while.

9.     Eat a Runeberg Cake

Now that you’ve met the man it’s time to eat the cake.  Finland, it appears, has a thing for desserts and cakes.  And it goes without saying that the National Poet has a cake named after him.  There are two great places to get a Runeberg Cake while you’re in Porvoo.  The first is the Tea and Coffee House Helmi, I’ve marked it on the map for you.  The second is the Porvoon Paahtimo Bar & Café, again on the map.  We had our Runeberg cake at the latter.  They have a moored boat on the river, and it’s glorious to sit here and just gaze at the red riverside warehouses.

The Runeberg cake or Runebergintorttu is made with a combination of almond and wheat flour.  It has ginger and cardamon and its got a dense heavy texture.  It was apparently, you know, as the legend goes, invented by the poet’s wife, Frederika and he used to eat it for breakfast.   The Runberg cake is usually cylinder-shaped and has raspberry jam on the top with a layer of plain white icing.  In Porvoo, you can buy this delicacy every day of the year, but in other parts of the country it is traditionally eaten in January and up to the 5^th of February, which was Runeberg’s birthday

Map of Things to See and Do in Porvoo

You can see the full map of Porvoo’s things to do here.

Practical Considerations for Visiting Porvoo

Here’s all the nitty gritty and detail that you’ll need for planning a visit to Porvoo in Finland.

How to Get to Porvoo

Porvoo is well-connected.  From Helsinki Airport it’s just a 30-minute drive, a little longer from central Helsinki. If you’relooking for things to do in Helsinki, then our Helsinki Itinerary is here.  From Turku it took us around 3 hours, skirting around Helsinki.  There are also great public transport links to Porvoo.

Driving from Helsinki to Porvoo

The drive from Helsinki to Porvoo is easy, simply take the E18 road for around 50 kilometers (31 miles) and follow the signs.  There are details of where to park in Porvoo in a few lines time.

Helsinki to Porvoo by Bus

There are regular buses from Helsinki to Porvoo.  It takes about 50 minutes to come to Porvoo this way. You can check the timetable and book your bus to Porvoo here. 

Helsinki to Porvoo by ship

During the summer months, you can sail to Porvoo from Helsinki on the J/L Runeberg.  The ship leaves Helsinki’s market square in the morning on certain days and returns in the afternoon.  The schedule is here.  You’ll have about 2.5 hours in Porvoo if you take the boat both ways.  A single ticket costs from 8 Euros.  Buy tickets here.

Helsinki to Porvoo by Day Trip

Most day trips from Helsinki to Porvoo are actually half-day trips, lasting in total about 4 hours, but coming with a full English language guiding service.  This is one of the best-reviewed day trips from Helsinki to Porvoo.

Where to Park in Porvoo

There’s a reasonable amount of free parking in Porvoo, but you’ll need to plan where you’re going to park.  Parking places in Porvoo are marked on this map.  You’ll need to use a parking disc as this is timed parking (i.e. you can stay 3 hours or so).  There are signposts indicating how long you can park in each area.  Your rental car company will provide parking discs.  A parking disc is a piece of plastic or cardboard that you put in your windscreen and rotate to show the arrow pointing to the time that you arrived.  All parking that requires a parking disc will have a sign indicating this and also showing how long you can park there.  If you lose your parking disc or your rental car company doesn’t provide one, then you can buy one from a service station or store for about 2 euros.

There is also paid parking, which usually costs around 2 euros an hour.  We parked in the free (parking disc) parking on the opposite side of the river to Old Porvoo, just along from the pedestrian bridge.

How to Get Around Porvoo

All the places that you’ll want to see in Porvoo are in easy walking distance, so park the car, or get off the bus and prepare to walk.  This isn’t a big place, and it’s a pleasant enough spot to saunter around slowly if the weather is warm!

Where to Stay in Porvoo

If you’re spending longer than the day in Porvoo, then the RUNO Hotel is our top pick for accommodation.  It’s seriously well located and an easy walk from the bus station and also has private parking.  It’s in a great location right in the heart of the old town, there’s a sauna (c’mon this is Finland) and gloriously comfortable rooms.  Check rates and book early here.

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Final Words on the Best 9 Things to Do in Porvoo

Porvoo is a delightful small town, whether you come on a day trip, or come independently, it’s a lovely rural location, and there are small streets, old houses, and a little history to explore here.  Come in good weather and explore the outdoors of Castle Hill, don’t forget your Runeberg cakes too!

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