Pietarsaari • Jakobstad

Pietarsaari (Swedish: Jakobstad) is a Finnish town in the province of Ostrobothnia on the coast of the Bothnian Sea. The town has 19 183 inhabitants. Pietarsaari is bilingual: at the end of 2018, 56.3 % of the population spoke Swedish and 34.7 % Finnish. The town was founded in 1652 by the widow of Count Jakob de la Gardie, Ebba Brahe, with the permission of Queen Kristiina of Sweden. Jakobstads svenska församling and Pietarsaaren suomalainen seurakunta, two parishes of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, are part of the municipality association Pietarsaarenseudu. The congregations are part of the Pietsarsson congregation of the Swedish Lutheran Church and the Pietsarsson congregations of St. James Lutheran Church and St. Petersburg Lutheran Church. The German Congregation here organises regular church services and other events in German language.