Travel Guide Hanko

127 km from Helsinki, Hanko is Finland's southernmost municipality. Its slogan is "Finland's sunny south". 8,661 inhabitants (2016), 44% of whom are Swedish-speaking, enjoy this southern climate. Hanko was founded in 1874. It was Finland's winter port, connected to the rest of Finland by rail. At the same time, it became a seaside resort and spa town, popular with the Russian nobility until the events of the Russian Revolution. The town is still home to magnificent wooden villas built along the seafront. Today, this wooden architecture has been elevated to the status of decorative art. At the turn of the 20th century, 250,000 of the 400,000 Finnish emigrants who left to try their luck in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia passed through the port. The city was also the scene of military operations motivated by its strategic position. Numerous ruins bear witness to this era, which lasted until the Second World War. Today, the port and its thirty kilometers of sandy beaches attract many tourists on foot or by bike. Don't hesitate to extend your stay in the area to fully explore it and take advantage of all the natural resources to be found nearby.