Every design for Hamina

From the ramparts by Hamina Bastioni, the old fortress town opens out in rings, its streets curving around the centre instead of running in a straight grid. Hamina lies on the shore of the Gulf of Finland in the Kymenlaakso region, a short way from Kotka, with the Port of Hamina-Kotka on its doorstep, a harbour that lives on forest products and cargo.

What sets Hamina apart is that circular town plan, laid out for a frontier fortress in the eighteenth century and so rare that Palmanova in Italy is the comparison usually made. Haminan raatihuone, the old town hall, belongs to the same picture, and RUK-museo tells the story of the reserve officers' school that moved into the buildings of the former cadet school. The treaty by which Sweden gave up Finland was signed here too, and it still bears the town's Swedish name, Fredrikshamn.

If Hamina is your town, you know how its streets always bring you back round to where you began. Keep that ring with you, wherever you happen to be walking.