Porvoo (Swedish: Borgå) is a Finnish city located on the southern
coast of Uusimaa in the province of Uusimaa. The city has a
population of 50,590. The city is bilingual; 64.1 per cent of the
population are Finnish-speaking, 29.6 per cent Swedish-speaking and
6.3 per cent non-Finnish-speaking. The neighboring municipalities of
Porvoo are Askola, Loviisa, Myrskylä, Pornainen and Sipoo. Porvoo
was the provincial center of the province of Eastern Uusimaa.
Porvoo has had the episcopal seat since 1723: until 1923, the
former Vyborg Cathedral Chapter operated in the city, and the new
diocese of Porvoo, founded after that, has been the Swedish-speaking
diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
The distance from the eastern border of Helsinki to the center of
Porvoo is about 35 kilometers.
The city center is located
between the gravel hills in the Porvoonjoki Valley on the shores of
Porvoonlahti (Városinselkä). The city is crossed by three rivers:
Mustijoki, Porvoonjoki and Ilolanjoki, whose watersheds include
Viksberginjärvi and Veckjärvi. There are rocky or moraine-covered
hilly lands around the clay-based, cultivated river valley. In the
eastern part of the city is the long Tirmo Peninsula, with several
ridges on the south and west sides: Stensbölenselkä, Orrbynselkä,
Äggskärsinselkä, Svartbäckinselkä and Esthamninselkä. There is also
a broken water area comprising large islands and archipelagos. The
largest islands are Kråkö, separated from the mainland by narrow
straits, Vessölandet and Emäsalo, which are almost 15 kilometers
long, and the Pelling archipelago, which consists of hundreds of
islands. In the southwestern part of the city, on the other hand, is
the fragmented archipelago of Onas.
The largest islands in
the Porvoo region are Vessö, Emäsalo, Suur-Pellinki, Kråkö,
Hakasalo, Onas and Pirttisaari.