4 Best Sights in Porvoo, Side Trips from Helsinki

Near Porvoo in Haikko stands the studio of the painter Albert Edelfelt in a quaint wooden cottage tucked away in the woods. Edelfelt was born into a well-to-do Swedish-speaking family in 1854 and was one of the first Finnish painters to find international fame. He introduced the realist movement to his native country and was active in encouraging young aspiring artists to find success in Paris. In this studio he completed some 220 of his works, and it's here where he died in 1905, surrounded by the beautiful landscape that inspired so many of his works.

The home of Finland's national poet is a fantastically authentic museum displaying the poet and his wife's original furnishings and paintings exactly as they were when he died in 1877. The Runeberg story is told by museum staff, and there's an exhibit related to Finnish history.

At this 15th-century stone-and-wood cathedral, the diet of the first duchy of Finland was opened in 1809, making Finland semiautonomous as part of the Russian Empire. This is one of the oldest churches of its kind in Finland—it's survived being burned to the ground by both Danish and Russian armies on several occasions and more recently in 2006 by home-grown arsonists, after which it was impressively and lovingly restored. Inside, you can make out some of the original Catholic artwork, before the Protestant Reformation led to the whitewashing of its walls. Just outside the front gate are some of the best views of the surrounding town.

The Porvoo Museum, inside the historic town hall built in 1764, captures the region's social and cultural history through exhibits on daily life and household objects.