Turku ( ; ) is a city situated on the southwest
coast of Finland
at the mouth
of Aura
River
. It is located in the region of Finland Proper
in the Province of Western Finland
. It is believed that Turku came into
existence during the end of 13th century which makes it the oldest
city in Finland. Turku was for a long time the most important
population center in Finland: it was the first capital city of
Finland from 1809 to 1812 and continued to be the largest city by
population in Finland until the end of the 1840s. Nowadays its
significance nationwide is not the same as it used to be, but Turku
is still a regional capital and important location for business and
culture.
Because of its long history it has been the site of many important
historical events and has extensively influenced
Finnish history.
During the year 2011
Turku has been designated to be the European Capital of Culture
together with Tallinn
, the capital
city of Estonia
. In
1996 it was declared the official Christmas City of Finland.
Due to its
location, Turku is a notable commercial and passenger seaport city with over three million passengers
travelling through Port of
Turku
each year to Stockholm
and Mariehamn
.
As of Turku’s population was , which makes it the fifth largest
city in Finland by population.
As of 31 August 2008 there were 303,492
inhabitants living in the Turku
sub-region, which makes it the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere
sub-region. The city is officially
bilingual as percent of its population identify as
speaking Swedish as a
mother-tongue.
History
Turku has
a long history as Finland's largest city and occasionally as the
administrative center of the country, but has, over the last two
centuries, lost both titles to Helsinki
. To this day, the city's identity stems from
its status as the oldest city in Finland and the country's first
capital.
Originally, the word "Finland" referred only
to the area around Turku (hence the title, "Finland Proper" for the region).
Cathedral of Turku, 1814.
Although archaeological findings in the area date back to the
Stone Age, the town of Turku was founded
in late 13th century. Its name originated from an
Old East Slavic word,
tǔrgǔ,
meaning "market place".
The Cathedral of Turku
was consecrated in
1300, and together with Turku Castle
and the Dominican
monastery (founded in 1249), established
the city as the most important location in medieval Finland.
During the
Middle Ages, Turku was the
seat of the Bishop of Turku (a title later upgraded to
Archbishop of Turku), covering the then
eastern half of Kingdom of Sweden (most of the present-day Finland)
until the 17th century. Even if Turku had no official capital
status, both the short-lived institutions of
Dukes and
Governors-General of
Finland usually had their Finnish residences there. In 1640,
the first
university in Finland,
The Royal Academy of Turku, was
founded in Turku. Turku was also the meeting place for the
States of Finland in 1676.
After the
Finnish War, which ended when Sweden
ceded
Finland to Imperial
Russia
at the Treaty of
Fredrikshamn in 1809, Turku became briefly the official
capital, but soon lost the status to Helsinki, as Emperor Alexander
I felt that Turku was too far from Russia and too aligned with
Sweden to serve as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The
change officially took place in 1812. The government offices that
remained in Turku were finally moved to the new capital after the
Great Fire of Turku, which
almost completely destroyed the city in 1827.
After the fire, a new
and safer city plan was drawn up by German
architect Carl Ludvig
Engel, who had also designed the new capital, Helsinki.
Turku remained the largest city in Finland for another twenty
years.
In 1918,
a new university, the Åbo Akademi
– the only Swedish
language university in Finland – was founded in Turku.
Two years
later, the Finnish language
University
of Turku
was founded alongside it. These two
universities are the second and third to be founded in Finland,
both by private donations.
In the 20th century Turku was called "Finland's gateway to the
West" by historians such as Jarmo Virmavirta.
The city enjoyed good
connections with other Western
European countries and cities, especially since the 1940s with
Stockholm across the Gulf of Bothnia
. In the 1960s, Turku became the first Western
city to sign a twinning agreement with
Leningrad
in the Soviet Union
, leading to greater inter-cultural exchange and
providing a new meaning to the city's 'gateway' function.
After the
fall of Communism in Russia
, many
prominent Soviets came to Turku to study Western business practices
, among them Vladimir Putin, then
Leningrad's deputy mayor .
In the
1960s and 1970s, Turku displayed unprecedented rates of growth ,
resulting in the construction of many new densely-inhabited
suburbs such as Varissuo
and Runosmäki
, and the annexation of many neighbouring
municipalities (e.g., Maaria
and Paattinen
). Many old quarters were completely
destroyed in the process, replacing them with more efficient and
faster-built concrete buildings. The city's growth has led to
problems with
unemployment in the new
populous suburbs on the one hand, and with the provision of public
services (such as education) in more remote parts on the
other.
Geography
Located
at the mouth of the Aura
river
in the southwestern corner of Finland, Turku covers
an area of 245 km² (94 sq mi) of
land, spread over both banks of the river. The eastern side,
where the Cathedral of Turku is located, is popularly referred to
as
täl pual jokke ("this side of the river"), while the
western side is referred to as
tois pual jokke ("the other
side of the river"). The city centre is located close to the river
mouth, on both sides of the river, though development has recently
been expanding westward.
There are nine bridges over the Aura river in Turku. The first
bridge in the city area, nowadays known as
Pennisilta, was
built in 1414, and has since been demolished. The oldest of the
current bridges is
Auransilta, which was constructed in
1904. The newest bridge is
Teatterisilta ('theatre
bridge'), a
pedestrian-only bridge
built in 1997. One of the best-known landmarks of Turku is the
Föri, a small
ferry that transports
pedestrians and
bicycles across the river
without payment.
With a
population of approximately 300,000 , the Turku Region (LAU 1) is the third largest
urban region in Finland, after Greater
Helsinki and the area around Tampere. The region includes, in addition to the city
itself the following municipalities: Askainen
, Kaarina
, Lemu
, Lieto
, Masku
, Merimasku
, Mynämäki
, Naantali
, Nousiainen
, Paimio
, Piikkiö
, Raisio
, Rusko
, Rymättylä
, Sauvo
, Vahto
, and
Velkua
.
A more exclusive definition for the urban area is the
city region of Turku with a population
around 235,000 consisting of four major municipalities Kaarina,
Raisio, Naantali and Turku.
Subdivisions
The city is divided into 78 districts and nine
wards that do not function as
local government units. There are, however, some projects that are
based on the district divisions, particularly in the eastern part
of the city, where unemployment is rife in certain areas. The
largest populated districts are Varissuo and Runosmäki.
By area,
however, Kakskerta
and Paattinen, formed from former municipalities that were
annexed to the city proper in the mid-20th century, constitute the
largest districts.
As many of the small neighbouring
municipalities from the north and
south of the city were annexed during the mid-20th century, Turku
is today shaped like an elongated
pear. The
city centre and most of the suburban areas lie in the middle,
separated from the less densely populated northern rural areas by
the Turku
bypass, that forms part of
European route E18.
Islands such as
Ruissalo
, Hirvensalo
and Kakskerta, forming the southern part of the city, are also
sparsely populated and mostly contain summer residences, with the
exception of some districts in Hirvensalo which are currently
growing into upper-middle-class
suburbs.
Climate
Situated
by the Baltic
Sea
and sheltered by the islands of the Archipelago
Sea
, Turku has a hemiboreal
climate. Like much of southern Finland, the city experiences
warm summers, with
temperatures ranging
up to 30
°C (86
°F), and relatively cold winters with frequent
snowfall. The warmest month of the year is
July, with an average temperature of 17 °C (62 °F), whereas the
coldest month is February. The average year-round temperature is 5
°C (41 °F). Winter usually starts in early December, and spring in
late March.
Precipitation in Turku
averages 698
mm (27
inches) a year. The rainiest month of the year is
August, when the city receives on average 79 mm
(3.1 inches) of rainfall. In May, the driest month of the
year, the figure is only 35 mm (1.4 inches). The average
air pressure at sea level is 1012
millibars, with little variance throughout
the year.
Operational since 1955, the city's weather station is located at an altitude of
47 metres (154 feet) at Turku Airport
.
Climate averages in Turku:
Government and politics
The Court of Appeal and Academy House
of Turku.
Being both a
regional and
provincial capital, Turku is an
important administrative centre, hosting the seat of the
Archbishop of Finland and a
Court of Appeal.
Mikko Pukkinen, the
former city manager of Seinäjoki
, has been the city
manager of Turku since 2006.
The
city council and city board have
long been dominated by the
Social Democratic Party
(SDP) and the
National Coalition Party
(
Kokoomus), with approximately equal representation.
Currently, the council has 67 members, with 20 from
Kokoomus and 15 from SDP. The other major parties in the
council are the
Green League (11
seats), the
Left Alliance
(10 seats) and the
Swedish
People's Party (4 seats). The current chair of the city board
is
Aleksi Randell from
Kokoomus.
Transportation
For a
city of its size, Turku has a moderate public transportation network of
bus routes, which is comparable to bus network
of similar-sized Tampere. The bus network is managed and supervised
by the
City of Turku Public Transport Office, and is
operated mainly by private companies. Regional buses are operated
by private companies, most importantly
TLO, with
very frequent services especially to the neighbouring cities of
Naantali, Raisio, and Kaarina.
Rail traffic to and from Turku is handled by the Finnish national
carrier,
VR. As with
most other Finnish cities, railways were an important method of
transportation in the first half of the 20th century, but have
since seen a sharp fall in popularity. As a result, the number of
services has fallen and only the railways towards Tampere and
Helsinki are now in use.
The railway stations currently used for
passenger traffic are the Turku Central railway station
in Pohjola
, and two smaller stations in Kupittaa and the Port of Turku.
There is no local rail traffic at the moment, as the city's popular
tram services were discontinued in 1972, and
the various local railway lines to neighbouring towns and
municipalities were all abolished during the late 20th century.
However, there are plans for a
light rail
system in the Turku region in the near future. This system would
more ably serve major suburbs of the city such as Varissuo and
Runosmäki, as well as the neighbouring cities.
Bus network use today has become highly uneconomical and the ticket
prices have been raised repeatedly. Growing expenses and worsening
traffic problems are main issues that have put trams back under
consideration as well as
bus lanes.
The State
of Finland has announced plans to support Espoo
with
30 % of full expenses on a new metro rail, the Regional
Council of Southwest Finland is going to use this as a test case
for a new light rail network in Turku.:
The Turku
Bus Station and the Turku Central Railway Station
are currently located in different places.
The City of Turku is planning to combine these two in a new greater
station complex in the near future. This new travel center will
consist of a hotel and several shopping estates. This center will
connect all public transportation from commuter trains to long
distance buses.
Turku Airport is located eight kilometres to the north of the
city centre, partly in the neighbouring municipality of Rusko.
There are
also daily ferry services from the Port of Turku to Sweden and Åland
, operated
by Silja Line, Viking Line and SeaWind
Line. These are something of a Finnish cultural
tradition (see
ruotsinlaiva), and
people often travel long distances across Finland to Turku just to
take a
cruise across the Gulf of
Bothnia.
The
archipelago
sea
boat traffic is handled by, among others, S/S Ukkopekka. Old steamship cruise Turku-Naantali-Turku.
Turku is
the only city in Finland to have three long-distance railway
stations: Turku Central, Port of
Turku, and Kupittaa
. Even Helsinki has only two: Helsinki
Central
and Pasila
.
Demographics
At the end of 2004 the Turku region (including the
economic districts of Turku and
Åboland) had a population of 319,632, out of which 174,824 people
lived in the city of Turku. The city's population density is 718
inhabitants per square kilometre.
89.4 % of Turku's population speak Finnish as their
native language, while 5.2 % speak
Swedish. The next most widely spoken languages are
Russian (1.3 %),
Arabic (0.6 %),
Albanian (0.5 %), and
Kurdish (0.4 %).
95.8 % of the
population are Finnish
citizens, and the most sizeable minorities are from Russia, Estonia, Iraq
, and
Iran
. Like all other Finnish cities, Turku does
not collect information about the ethnic and religious makeup of
its population.
Famous people from the city of Turku include
Paavo Nurmi,
Mauno
Koivisto,
Herman Spöring,
Miikka Kiprusoff and brothers,
Saku and
Mikko
Koivu. On October 30, 2008, the Koivu brothers became the first
NHL brothers to face other as captains. The Turku region has also
brought forth many prominent personalities, including the
marshal,
Carl
Gustaf Mannerheim.
Economy
Business district in The city's economy is centred around the Port
of Turku and other service-oriented industries. The city is also a
renowned
high-tech centre – the
Turku Science Park area in Kupittaa hosts
over 300 companies from the fields of
biotechnology and
information technology, as well as
several institutions of higher learning that work in closely with
the business sector. This cooperative element is seen as a
particularly important factor with regards to the city's expected
future economic development, as outlined in the
Turku
Strategy that is published annually by the city council.
Turku,
with its good transportation network and close proximity to the
Archipelago
Sea, is also an important centre for tourism,
frequently hosting various conventions and
exhibitions.
As of 2007, the city's
unemployment
rate is 9.4 %.
The problem of unemployment is however
troublesome in the districts of Pansio
, Lauste
, and
Varissuo, where it hovers at around 16 %.
The city collects an 18 per cent
income
tax (
council tax) from its
inhabitants, in addition to the progressively graduated taxation
practised by the Finnish state. The total amount received through
council tax in 2004 was projected at €400 million, a reduction of
1.0 per cent from the previous year. Taxes collected from
corporations amounted to €39 million in
2004.
Education
Turku has a longer educational history than any other Finnish city
– the first school in the city, the
Cathedral School, was founded
along with the Cathedral of Turku in the late 13th century.
The first
university in Finland, the "The Royal Academy of Turku" (now
University
of Helsinki
), was established in the city in 1640. In
1820, the first school in Finland conforming to the
Bell-Lancaster method was founded in
Turku with the aim of making primary education more inclusive to
the lower classes.
Turku is home to about 35,000 higher education students.
The
University
of Turku is the second largest university in Finland (18,000
students), as measured by student enrollment, and one of the oldest
as well, having been founded in 1920. Turku is also home to
several other establishments of higher education, namely
Åbo
Akademi founded 1918, Finland's only Swedish-language
university, Turun kauppakorkeakoulu (Turku School
of Economics
), and Turun ammattikorkeakoulu (Turku
University of Applied Sciences
) which is second largest
polytechnic in Finland after Metropolia University of Applied
Sciences.
The
central hospital of Turku, Turku
University Hospital
, is affiliated with the University and it is
used as a teaching hospital.
Turku is one of only two cities in Finland to have an established
international school (the other
city being Helsinki).
Turku
International School, located in the eastern district of
Varissuo, has been operating since 2003. By an agreement
signed between the city of Turku and the University
of Turku, Turun normaalikoulu
takes care of the teaching in the international
school.
Media
Main library of Turku
The most widely read
newspaper of Turku, and the area
around it, is the daily regional morning newspaper
Turun Sanomat, with a readership of over
70 % of the population every day.
Åbo Underrättelser, a
Swedish language newspaper published in Turku, is the oldest
newspaper in Finland, having been published since 1824. The
free-of-charge
Turkulainen newspaper is also among the
most popular newspapers, together with the local edition of
Metro International and
the national evening
tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. There are also a number of
local newspapers such as
Kulmakunta (for the eastern
suburbs of Turku, including Varissuo and Lauste), and
Rannikkoseutu (for the area around the neighbouring cities
of Raisio and Naantali).
The newspaper,
Turun Sanomat, also operates a regional
television station, called
Turku
TV.
The Finnish national broadcaster,
Yleisradio, screens local news,
daily from Monday to Friday, for the Southwest Finland (including
the regions of Finland Proper
and Satakunta
) residents. All
Finnish national TV
channels are viewable and national radio channels audible in
the Turku area. In addition, a number of local
radio stations, eg
Auran Aallot and
Radio
Sata are operational.
Culture
Cultural venues in Turku include
several
theatres,
cinemas, and
art
galleries, and a city philharmonic
orchestra. The city's cultural centre organises a
number of regular events, most notably the
Medieval Market in July each year.
Turku is also the official
Christmas city
of Finland, and 'Christmas Peace' in Finland is declared on every
24 December from the Brinkkala Hall
balcony.
The Turku
Music Festival and the rock
festival Ruisrock (held on the island
of Ruissalo) are among the oldest of its kind in Scandinavia. The city also hosts another
rock festival,
Down by the
Laituri, and one of the largest electronic music festivals in
Northern Europe, UMF (Uuden Musiikin Festivaali, "New Music
Festival"), in addition to a vibrant nightlife, centred around the
Market Square.
There are
also numerous museums, such as the Turku Art
Museum and the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art
. The Åbo Akademi University maintains the
Sibelius museum, which is the only
museum in Finland specialising in the field of music.
Apart from these,
there are also several historical museums that display the city's
medieval period, such as the Turku Castle, which has been a functional historical museum
since 1881, and the Aboa Vetus
museum, built in the late 1990s over the 14th
century archaeological site.
The
Luostarinmäki
handicrafts museum,
converted from residential buildings that survived the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, was the
first Scandinavian venue to receive the
"Golden Apple" tourism award.
Turku is going to be
European Capital of Culture in
2011, and the city council has approved numerous projects to boost
the city's image in preparation for that status.
The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been a tradition in Finland
from the Middle Ages every year, except in 1939 due to the
Winter War. The declaration takes place on the
Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official 'Christmas City', at
noon on Christmas Eve. The declaration ceremony begins with the
hymn
Jumala ompi linnamme (
Martin
Luther's
Ein'
feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the
Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a
parchment roll in Finnish and Swedish.
Sports
Football is the most popular sport
in Turku. The city has two teams in the
Veikkausliiga:
FC
Inter and
TPS.
Both teams play their
home matches at the modern Veritas Stadion
in the district of Kupittaa.
Ice hockey is very popular sport in
Turku. The local club
TPS (which is
part of the same organisation as the football team) plays in the
sport's top level in Finland, the
SM-liiga.
It is based at Turkuhalli
to the southwest of the city centre. TPS has
won the Finnish ice hockey championship ten times. The city's other
major ice hockey team is
TuTo, which play at
the country's second level. A new ice hockey arena was constructed
for Tuto in the Kupittaa park in 2006.
The
Paavo Nurmi
Marathon is an annual sporting event in Turku, named after
the world-famous runner
Paavo Nurmi who
was born and raised in the city.
Turku has also been the site of sporting history, as on June 21,
1954 it was in Turku where the Australian
John Landy became the second person to run the
mile under four minutes.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Turku is
twinned with:
Turku has co-operation agreements with the following cities:
Gallery
File:Turku Castle.jpg|The medieval keep of Turku Castle as seen
from the harbour side.File:Turku Museum of Art.jpg|
Turku Museum of Art is a classical
example of
Romantic nationalism
in architecture.File:Turun apteekkimuseo.jpg|Pharmacy
museum.File:Turun hovioikeus.jpg|The Court of Appeal.File:Turun
käsityöläismuseo.jpg|Luostarinmäki handicraft museum.
File:St Michael's
Church, Turku.jpg|Michael's Church
File:Martin kirkko, seen from
north.jpg|Martin's
Church
File:Länsiranta, ilta.jpg|Western side of
Aura river in central Turku.File:Turku orthodox church.jpg|Turku
orthodox church stands next to the main Market Square.
File:Brinkhallin
kartano.jpg|Brinkhall Manor in Kakskerta island.File:Kakskerran kirkko.jpg|Church of
Kakskerta.File:Turku Samppalinna.jpg|Old Mill in Samppalinna.
See also
References
- The city's official website at http://www.turku.fi/.
- The website of the tourist organisation Turku TouRing at
http://www.turkutouring.fi/.
- Turku from the
Finnish-language Wikipedia. Retrieved 11 August 2005.
- Kuntaliitto (2005). Aluetietopankki. Retrieved 13 January
2006.
- Turun kaupungin viestintäkeskus (2005). Kunnalliskertomus 2004. Retrieved 11
August 2005.
- Turun kaupunki (2005). Turun kaupungin tilastollinen vuosikirja.
Retrieved 11 August 2005.
- Turun kaupunginvaltuusto (2004). Talousarvio 2005. Retrieved 21 August
2005.
- Turun Sanomat (2004). Tutkimus: lehtien lukijapeitot. Retrieved 21
August 2005.
- Anttonen, Martti (ed) (1992). Täällä Suomen
synnyinmuistot. Jyväskylä: Varsinais-Suomen
maakuntaliitto.
- Knuuti, Heikki et al. (1986). Kotikaupunkini Suomen
Turku. Keuruu: Otava Publishing.
- Virmavirta, Jarmo (2004). Finland's City of Turku.
Keuruu: Otava Publishing.
- Turku at EuroWeather.
- Turun kaupunki (2007). Muutoksen suunnat 3/2007. Retrieved 27
September 2007.
Notes
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