Cafe Qwensel
NANNA'S CO
Nanna's Co — Two Unique Cafés in Turku
Cafe Qwensel
Since 2011, entrepreneur, restaurateur and vocational teacher Kaisa Takala has been operating a cafe located in the pharmacy museum courtyard, in the heart of Turku city.
Kaisa's business, Nanna's Co, aims to create exceptional customer experiences by providing first class customer service and high-quality handmade treats including sweet and savory pies, donuts, juice, coffee and tea (the latter ones served in lovely old pots).
Additionally, Nanna's Co rents out the cafe premises for private events. Don't forget to also visit our other cafe in Turku Art Museum - Café Victor!
Image: Jere Harjula
Cafe Qwensel — Turku's Oldest Wooden House
The History of the Qwensel House
Cafe Qwensel operates in the courtyard of the Qwensel House, Turku's oldest surviving wooden building, completed around 1700. The area was reserved for officials and nobility in the city plan drawn up by Per Brahe the Younger in 1652. The house takes its name from its first known owner, Wilhelm Johan Qwensel, who bought the plot in 1695.
The house's most famous resident was Dr. Josef Gustav Pipping, Finland's first professor of surgery, who owned the house from 1785 to 1815 and furnished it in the fashionable rococo and Gustavian styles of the day. The house survived the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, after which the area became known as the "Fortuna quarter." A year later, merchant navy officer Nils Friedrich Tjäder bought the house and built a new wing for his business — the very wing that today houses the Pharmacy Museum.
Today, the same courtyard once walked by 18th-century nobles and 19th-century apothecaries offers a warm place to enjoy coffee and handmade pastries.