Veckelax

Veckelax, or Vehkalahti, was a trading place on the Gulf of Finland recorded as early as 1336. In 1653 Per Brahe founded a town here, Weckelax Nystad, with rights to trade abroad. Destroyed during the Great Northern War, it was rebuilt in the 1720s as Fredrikshamn, known in Finnish as Hamina. Its circular plan and radiating streets were enclosed by a star-shaped fortress designed under the Swedish general Axel von Löwen.

The new fortress guarded Sweden's eastern frontier after the Treaty of Nystad. Its Swedish earthworks were unfinished when war returned, and the Treaty of Åbo in 1743 transferred the town to Russia. Russian engineers continued the defences. In 1809 Sweden and Russia concluded the Treaty of Fredrikshamn here, ending the Finnish War and ceding Finland to Russia. The old trading place had become the setting for a settlement that redrew the political map of the north.