Every design for Kotka

Inside Merikeskus Vellamo, Kotka's maritime centre, the town's whole story is told through the sea: the trade that drew settlers to the mouth of the Kymi River, the forts built to guard the coast, and the port that still keeps the place working. Kotka itself is young by Finnish standards. It was carved out of the old Kymi parish when the islands of Kotkansaari and Hovinsaari were made a town, and Swedish was its official language for its first decades.

Geography explains almost everything here. Kotka sits on the Gulf of Finland where the Kymi River meets the sea, with its centre on an island and its neighbours Hamina, Kouvola and Pyhtää inland and along the coast. The steam icebreaker Höyryjäänmurtaja Tarmo and the stones of Ruotsinsalmen merilinnoitus, the Ruotsinsalmi sea fortress, are reminders of how much this stretch of water has mattered.

On the map, the island centre and the river's mouth are easy to pick out. For anyone who grew up here, so is the short walk from almost any street down to the harbour.