Old Riverside Warehouses

The row of red-painted wooden warehouses lining the south bank of the Porvoonjoki is the most photographed image in Finland outside Helsinki. Built in the 18th and 19th centuries to store goods from the merchant ships that came upriver from the Baltic, they have been converted into shops, galleries, and restaurants while retaining their original structure.

The best view of the warehouses is from the old bridge just upstream, where you can see the entire row reflected in the river when the water is calm. In summer the area comes alive with outdoor cafes and small boats. The warehouses are best visited in morning light when the tourists are thinner and the reflections are clearest.

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A story
The red colour on Porvoo's riverside warehouses comes from a Swedish tradition of painting wooden buildings with Falun red, a paint made from the mineral waste of Swedish copper mines that also protects wood from rot. The colour became so associated with Finnish rural and coastal architecture that it now reads as quintessentially Finnish, though it arrived via Swedish imperial administration.

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