Rauma, Finland

In the 14th century, before it was declared a town, Rauma had a Franciscan monastery and a Catholic church. In 1550, the townsmen of Rauma were ordered to relocate to Helsinki, but this was unsuccessful and Rauma continued to grow.

Illustration in Finland framstäldt i teckningar edited by Zacharias Topelius and published 1845-1852.

Practically the whole wooden part of the town of Rauma was devastated in the fires of 1640 and 1682. The city centre, which mostly comprised the entire town until 1809, has approximately 600 wooden buildings. The neo-renaissance style of many of the houses is a result of prosperity brought on by seafaring. In 1897 Rauma had the largest fleet of sailing boats in Finland, totalling 57 vessels. As the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Rauma was attacked by French Navy and British Navy in 1855 during the Åland War. Goods were mainly exported to Germany, Stockholm and the Baltic states. In the 1890s, Rauma got a teacher's college (a 'seminar'), which was later annexed to the University of Turku. A part of the department of education still exists in Rauma.

The name Rauma comes from the Germanic word strauma, meaning "stream".[6]

After World War II, Rauma developed into an industrial city, the main industries being shipbuilding, paper and pulp mills, and metal industry. Rauma is also the fifth largest port in Finland with almost six million tonnes of shipping per year. Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is located next to Rauma, in Eurajoki. Near Rauma, there is the static-inverter plant of Fenno-Skan.

In 2019 the biggest tax payers in Rauma were Raumaster, Forchem, Länsi-Suomen Osuuspankki, Oras, Alfa Laval Aalborg and LähiTapiola Lännen.[7]

Sunset at the port of Rauma

Rauma is located between Turku and Pori by the national road 8 (E8). Finnish national road 12 starts from Rauma and it was extended to the Port of Rauma in 2008.

A railway connection from Kokemäki is in active freight use, as there is a straight connection to the heavy industry areas and to the port of Rauma. The rail passenger traffic ended in 1988.

Satakunnan Liikenne Oy runs the local bus traffic and it has 3 lines in Rauma.[9] The hub for the local buses is located in Savila while the Long distance buses operate from Rauma bus station. The long distance buses take passengers directly to Pori and Turku and to Tampere and Helsinki with one transfer at Huittinen.[10]

The nearest airport is located in Pori. The port of Rauma serves only freight ships on frequent basis.

Rauma has its own dialect of Finnish, "Rauman giäl". The dialect inherits words from languages such as Swedish, English and German due to the seafaring past. The dialect has been diluted into mainstream Finnish in day-to-day use, but it is fairly well studied (mainly by Hj. Nortamo) and practiced as a hobby.

The town also is the birthplace of Raumism, the non-idealist view of the constructed language Esperanto as a vehicle for culture, rather than as an international auxiliary language.

Rauma Maritime Museum in the Rauma Nautical School building was founded in 1999.[11]

Rauman Lukko is the local ice hockey team. Founded in 1936, Lukko plays in SM-liiga, the top professional league in Finland. Lukko has won the Finnish championship twice, in 1963 and 2021. Their home arena is Äijänsuo Arena. Local football teams are Pallo-Iirot and FC Rauma. These two teams share the same home field at Äijänsuo sports centre. Sea City Storm is an American football team playing in the Finnish American Football Association's 2nd division. Fera is a women's Finnish baseball team, whose home field is the Länsi-Suomi Arena at Otanlahti sports centre. Rauma also has an own orienteering club, Rasti-Lukko, two basketball teams known as Kaaron Roima and Rauma Basket, a rinkball team called UKP and a floorball team named SalBa.

Marina in Rauma, Finland

One popular saying goes that every family in Rauma owns a boat – this is not true, though the city has room for ca. 2,800[12] boats at its docks. People can use their own boats or water buses to get to the Kylmäpihlaja Lighthouse that doubles as a hotel and recreation site. Water buses take people to Reksaari island and former garrison island of Kuuskajaskari. Both islands are in recreational use.

Rauma and the surrounding municipality of Rauman maalaiskunta ("rural municipality of Rauma") were consolidated in 1993, continued in 2007 with the consolidation of municipality of Kodisjoki. The municipality of Lappi was consolidated to Rauma in 2009.

• 
  Tower of the Church of The Holy Cross
• 
  The old town hall of Rauma
• 
  Street in city centre
• 
  Fåfänga

• Sebastian Aho, professional ice hockey player
• Markus Niemelä, racing driver
• Antti Raanta, professional ice hockey goaltender
• Timo Soini, former Finnish foreign minister
• Jorma Tommila, actor

Rauma dialect

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rauma.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Rauma.

• Town of Rauma – Official site
• Länsi-Suomi – The city's most widely read newspaper
• Raumalainen – Local biweekly free newspaper (formerly Uusi Rauma), makes also a publication in local dialect once a year.
• Radio Ramona - Local radio station
• Rauma collection in 3D Warehouse Archived 2011-12-19 at the Wayback Machine