Helsinki Founded: Sweden's Trading Post Against Hanseatic League
King Gustav I of Sweden issued a decree founding Helsinki (then called Helsingfors) on June 12, 1550, ordering burghers from nearby towns to relocate to a new settlement at the mouth of the Vantaa River. The purpose was to create a trading port to compete with Tallinn, the Hanseatic League's dominant Baltic port just 50 miles across the Gulf of Finland. The initial settlement struggled: the location was swampy, the harbor shallow, and the forced settlers unhappy. Helsinki remained a minor town for over two centuries until Russia conquered Finland in 1809 and Tsar Alexander I moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812, wanting the capital closer to St. Petersburg. The city was then redesigned in the neoclassical style that still characterizes its center. Helsinki now has a metropolitan population of 1.5 million.
June 12, 1550
476 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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