Also known as Pietarsaari (in Finnish - Jakobstad is Swedish), Jakobstad is named after its founder Jacob de la Gardie who founded the town in 1652. Jakobstad is a harbor town that used to be known for its tabacco and shipsailing industry. In 1850, the town had to be built from scratch again after a devasting fire which left only a few original wooden houses of the Skata area intact. Nowadays, most of the bilingual inhabitants (nearly half of it have Swedish as their mother tongue) make their living in either the plastic or the forest industry.

The city centre is left to the pedetrians and has a green and lushy garden area nearby the old college. Recently, Fantasea Park has been opened nearby the harbor side, offering everything from foaming water to exhibitions on the fauna and the city's harbour and shipbuilding past. Jakobstad is also the birthplace of the nation's national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg. However, the Johan Ludvig Runeberg museum is in Porvoo, where he lived most of his life with his wife and eventually died.