Vaasa
Vaasa (Swedish Vasa) is a city in Finland. It recieved its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden. It is named after the Royal House of Vasa.
The history of Mustasaari (Mussor) and also of Vaasa begins in the 14th century, when the seafarers from the coastal region in central Sweden disembarked at the present Old Vaasa, and the wasteland owners from Finland proper came to guard their land.
In the middle of the century Saint Mary’s Church was built and in the 1370’s the building of the fortress at Korsholm, Crysseborgh, was undertaken, and it served as administrative centre of the Vaasa province.
King Charles IX founded the town of Vaasa on October 2, 1606 around the oldest harbour and trade point in the Mustasaari church village ca. 7 km to the southwest from the present city. King Charles IX gave the town the name of his royal house.
Thanks to the sea connections ship building and trade, especially tar trade, was flourishing from the seventeenth century and most of the inhabitants earned their living from it.
In 1683 the three-subject or ‘trivial’school moved from Nykarleby to Vaasa and four years later a new schoolhouse was built in Vaasa. Finland’s first library was founded in Vaasa in 1794.
The mainly wooden and densely built town was almost totally destroyed in a fire on August 3, 1852.
Only the Wasastjerna house and the Court of Appeal and some Russian guard-houses escaped the blaze.
Also the ruins of the greystone church, the belfry, the town hall and the trivialschool can be found in their original places. Much archive material concerning Vaasa and its inhabitants was destroyed in the fire.
The new town rose in 1862 about 7 km to the northwest from the old town. The town’s location at the sea offered good conditions for seafaring.
The town plan in the Empire style was planned by Carl Axel Setterberg. In the master plan the disastrous consequences of the fire were considered. Main streets in the new town were five broad avenues which divided the town into sections. Every block was divided by alleys. The foundation of Vaasa
The Vaasa town fire
Building a new town at the Klemetsö headland
