Uleåborg

Uleåborg, or Oulu, stands at the mouth of the Oulujoki on the Gulf of Bothnia. Its river brought the products of a broad inland hinterland to the sea, while salmon, timber and tar passed through its harbour. The town grew into a major northern trading centre, with craftsmen and shipbuilders working beside its merchants and sailors.

Sweden completed a castle at the river mouth in 1590, and King Charles IX ordered a town founded opposite it in 1605. Town privileges followed in 1610. An armoury was established beside the castle in 1614, and a drilling mill for gun barrels was ordered three years later. The river's salmon remained so valuable that mills and saws on the smaller channels were closed during the main fishing season. The eighteenth century brought growth and wider trading rights. A tar warehouse was established at Toppila in 1777, and Uleåborg became a provincial capital in 1779. By the century's end it was Finland's second-largest town after Turku. A great fire destroyed much of the wooden town in 1822, after which it was rebuilt.