Vehkalahti was as a municipality first mentioned in 1336. At the proposal of Count
Per Brahe, the area surrounding the Vehkalahti church (today St. Mary's Church) received its charter in 1653 through the establishment of Vehkalahden Uusikaupunki (Veckelax Nystad in
Swedish, "The New Town of Vehkalahti"). The town was later destroyed during the
Great Northern War in 1712. As the commercially vibrant city of
Vyborg was lost to Russia in 1721, Fredrikshamn (named in 1723 in the honor of King
Frederick I of Sweden) was dedicated to replace it. The town, hitherto a small domestic port with restricted trading privilege's, was granted extensive rights to conduct foreign trade. The Finnish speaking population soon abbreviated the name of the town to Hamina. The reconstruction of the town was completed between 1722 and 1724. The
star-shaped fortress and the circular town plan, designed by
Axel Löwen, were based on Central European and
Italian Renaissance concepts from the 16th century. In 1743, Hamina was surrendered to Russia, after the
Russo–Swedish War, 1741–1743, and the town of
Loviisa was the next Swedish candidate for an Eastern-Finnish trade center. Hamina became a Russian frontier town, for which a fortress was desirable. The
Treaty of Fredrikshamn (1809), by which Sweden ceded Finland, including parts of the province of
Lappland and
Åland, was signed in Hamina. Thus Sweden was split, and the eastern half was formed into the
Grand Duchy of Finland, an
autonomous part of the
Russian Empire. In 1812, the previously conquered territories known as
Old Finland (including Hamina) were joined to the Grand Duchy.
Hamina Cadet School was founded in 1819 and was in operation until 1903. One of the most famous students of this school was young
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867–1951), later known as the
Marshal of Finland. In 1920 the
Reserve Officer School began in the same facilities. Because the town was founded next to the Vehkalahti Church, the municipal center had always been inside the town borders.
Vehkalahti and Hamina were consolidated in 2003, and the old coat of arms was replaced with Vehkalahti's coat of arms. The old coat of arms was readopted in January 2013. Results of the
2021 Finnish municipal elections, resulted in
The Finns Party being the largest group on Hamina council, in Hamina. == Main sights ==