Kristinestad is a town and a municipality in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. It is located in the western part of Finland on the shore of the Bothnian Sea

Bothnian Sea

The Bothnian Sea links the Bothnian Bay with the Baltic proper. Kvarken is situated between the two. Together, the Bothnian Sea and Bay make up a larger geographical entity, the Gulf of Bothnia...

. The population of Kristinestad is and the municipality covers an area of km2 (excluding sea areas) of which km2 is inland water . The population density is PD/km2. The population is bilingual with a majority speaking Swedish

Finland-Swedish

Finland Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Swedish-speaking Finns as their mother tongue...

  and the minority Finnish . The town was chartered in 1649 at Koppö island and is named for Queen Christina of Sweden. Kristinestad is known for its old town with low wooden houses and narrow alleys.
In April, 2011, Kristinestad became Finlands's first Cittaslow

Cittaslow

Cittaslow is a movement founded in Italy in October 1999. The inspiration of Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, especially in a city's use of spaces and the flow of life and traffic through them...

community.

External links

• Official website
• Kristinestad 1649–1999. One of the best preserved wooden towns in Fenno-Scandinavia