Old Raahe — Vanha Raahe in Finnish — is one of the most intact 19th-century wooden townscapes in Finland. After fires destroyed much of the original 17th-century town, the streets were rebuilt to a generous grid plan with broad fire lanes between blocks and a uniform style of single-storey timber houses painted in ochre, falu red and pale yellow.
The neighbourhood still functions as a residential quarter: real people live behind the picket fences, lights come on in the parlour windows in the long winter darkness. Walking the streets — Brahenkatu, Sovionkatu, Saaristokatu — is the best thing to do in Raahe. The houses are not preserved as museum pieces but cared for by their owners, which gives the area a worn, lived-in character that wood-town reconstructions usually lack.