FACTFILE: Six dead, more than 300 houses destroyed
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The Great Fire of Vaasa on August 3rd 1852 left six people dead and hundreds suffered from burns.
Out of a total of 379 buildings, only some 24 survived, including the regional hospital, a prison, a military magazine, the Russian church, and some garrison buildings.
The value of the razed properties was calculated at 290,000 silver roubles. All the documents in the provincial offices and at the magistrate's court were lost.
The ledgers at the post office and some 5,000 silver roubles in cash were rescued, along with the church silver and some of the vestments, but the Vaasa Church itself was among the buildings to be destroyed.
After the fire, the city was moved in 1862 some kilometres to the north-west towards the sea, to its present location. Between 1855 and 1917 Vaasa was known as Nikolaistad after the late Czar Nicolai I. The new town centre was designed by Carl Axel Setterberg in the neo-classical "Empire" style, and taking lessons from the disastrous events of the previous decade.
Vaasa is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year. The city, which is now home to around 60,000, was founded in 1606 during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden.
Ties with Sweden remain strong, and the region of Ostrobothnia that surrounds Vaasa still has a narrow Swedish-language majority. Vaasa itself is bilingual, but today three-fourths of the population are Finnish-speakers.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.10.2006
More on this subject:
 Cause of Great Fire of Vaasa cleared up - 154 years later
Helsingin Sanomat
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