The story
Vehkalahti was as a municipality first mentioned in 1336. At the proposal of Count Per Brahe, the area surrounding the Vehkalahti church (today St. Mary's Church) received its charter in 1653 through the establishment of Vehkalahden Uusikaupunki (Veckelax Nystad in Swedish, "The New Town of Vehkalahti"). The town was later destroyed during the Great Northern War in 1712.
As the commercially vibrant city of Vyborg was lost to Russia in 1721, Fredrikshamn (named in 1723 in the honor of King Frederick I of Sweden) was dedicated to replace it. The town, hitherto a small domestic port with restricted trading privileges, was granted extensive rights to conduct foreign trade. The Finnish speaking population soon abbreviated the name of the town to Hamina. The reconstruction of the town was completed between 1722 and 1724. The star-shaped fortress and the circular town plan, designed by Axel Löwen, were based on Central European and Italian Renaissance concepts from the 16th century. Fortress towns with a circular street plan like this are quite rare; one example is Palmanova in Italy.
In 1743, Hamina was surrendered to Russia, after the Russo–Swedish War, 1741–1743, and the town of Loviisa was the next Swedish candidate for an Eastern-Finnish trade center. Hamina became a Russian frontier town, for which a fortress was desirable.
The Treaty of Fredrikshamn (1809), by which Sweden ceded Finland, including parts of the province of Lappland and Åland, was signed in Hamina. Thus Sweden was split, and the eastern half was formed into the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. In 1812, the previously conquered territories known as Old Finland (including Hamina) were joined to the Grand Duchy.
Hamina Cadet School was founded in 1819 and was in operation until 1903. One of the most famous students of this school was young Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867–1951), later known as the Marshal of Finland. In 1920 the Reserve Officer School began in the same facilities.
Because the town was founded next to the Vehkalahti Church, the municipal center had always been inside the town borders. Vehkalahti and Hamina were consolidated in 2003, and the old coat of arms was replaced with Vehkalahti's coat of arms. The old coat of arms was readopted in January 2013.
Results of the 2021 Finnish municipal elections, resulted in The Finns Party being the largest group on Hamina council, in Hamina.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hamina, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4