Finland is a country, which is more noted for modern architecture and design than archaeology

and history before the WWII. The history of this sparsely populated area is long, but the urbanization of the country was a quite late and slow process compared with other European countries. The urbanization of the present-day Finland started in the early 14th century with the establishment of Turku in the southwest coastal area, which at that time was part of the Swedish realm. By the mid of the 15th century, the number of towns in this eastern part of the Swedish realm was six. Today, four of these towns (Turku, Rauma, Naantali and Porvoo) do still exist inside Finnish borders and they are using their medieval history in branding and identity making when needed, but what is the value of archaeology and history in other, younger towns of Finland?

In this paper, I am presenting two towns with different backgrounds, history and branding and discussing how archaeologists have contributed in the development of the town and how archaeological information is used and presented in today’s townscape. The other town is Turku, which is the oldest town of Finland with a long tradition of archaeological excavations and a strong local identity built on the history of the town. The other town is Lahti, which is the youngest town of the modern Finland established in the turn of the 20th century and noted for industry and winter sports activities. Facing the prevailing situation enables us to ponder upon the question how we could integrate the past into the future and collaborate more intimately together in order to create townscapes which have their own identity formed as a result of past events and achievements of previous generations.