Old Rauma

Old Rauma is the historic wooden town centre of Rauma on Finland’s west coast, noted for a large, well-preserved ensemble of traditional wooden houses and yards dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. The site illustrates vernacular coastal town planning and crafts.

Streets of timber houses, small squares and historic workshops give a compact, legible townscape that reflects coastal trade and domestic life. The town is also associated with a strong lacemaking tradition, which is interpreted in local museums and craft centres.

Rauma developed as a medieval port and grew through the early modern period; the existing wooden built fabric largely dates from the 18th and 19th centuries when the town expanded and reconstructed after fires. The pattern of streets and yards preserves traditional building types and crafts.

Old Rauma sits within the modern town of Rauma on Finland’s Bothnian Sea coast in the Satakunta region, on the southwest coast of the country and approximately 90 kilometres northwest of Turku.

• Wooden architecture: Old Rauma contains one of the largest and best-preserved groups of wooden buildings in Northern Europe, with several hundred historic wooden houses concentrated in the centre.

What to See #

• Historic wooden quarters: A dense ensemble of wooden houses, narrow streets and small courtyards representing traditional coastal Finnish wooden-town architecture dating mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Lace and maritime heritage sites: Local museums and workshops that document Rauma's traditional lacemaking and maritime heritage, including a regional Lace Museum.
• Church of the Holy Cross and historic yards: The medieval stone Church of the Holy Cross and several historic yards that punctuate the wooden townscape.