Turku
Turku (,
Swedish: ), founded in the 13th century, is the oldest and fifth largest
city in
Finland, with a population of 174,868 (as of 2005). Located () at the mouth of the
Aura river in the southwest of the country, it is the
capital city of both the region of
Finland Proper and the province of
Western Finland, as well as being the centre of the country's third largest
urban area, with around 300,000 inhabitants. Turku has one of the largest
Finland-Swedish population in the country. The Finnish word for the inhabitants of Turku is
turkulaiset (singular:
turkulainen). Due to its location, the
Port of Turku is one of the busiest
seaports in Finland.
Turku has a cultural identity as Finland's historical centre, as it was the largest city in the country and served as its capital from its foundation in the 13th century to 1812. It also hosted the country's first university, the
Academy of Ă…bo. The loss of all these titles to
Helsinki in the early 19th century caused a long-standing rivalry between the two cities. Nowadays, Turku is considered Finland's '
second city' by some, while others assign the title to
Tampere.
Turku has a long history as Finland's largest city and administrative centre, but has, over the last two centuries, given up 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 former capital. Originally, the word 'Finland' referred only to the area around Turku (hence the title, 'Finland Proper' for the region).
Although archaelogical findings, dating back to the
Stone Age, have been discovered, Turku did not become a significant location until the late 13th century. Its name originated from an
old Russian word,
tÇ"rgÇ", meaning "market place". The
Cathedral of Turku was
consecrated in 1300, and together with
Turku Castle and the
Dominican monastery (founded in 1229), the city became 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'), and the only city in Finland to trade with the
Hanseatic League. The population of the city was around six thousand, and in the 1620s, it became the residence of the
Governor-General of Finland, thus affirming its status as the capital of Finland. In 1640, the first
university in Finland, the
Academy of Ă…bo, was founded in Turku.
After the
Finnish War, which ended when
Sweden ceded Finland to
Imperial Russia at the
Treaty of Hamina in 1809, the capital was changed from Turku to Helsinki, as
Emperor Alexander I felt that Turku was too far from Russia to serve as the capital of the
Grand Duchy. 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
Ă…bo 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.
20th-century Turku has been 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 whom was
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 (eg.
Maaria and
Paattinen). 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.
Located at the mouth of the
Aura river in the southwestern corner of Finland, Turku covers an area of 243
km² (94
sq mi) of land, spread over both sides 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, 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.
With a population of approximately 300,000, the Turku region is the third largest urban region in Finland, after
Greater Helsinki and the area around
Tampere. The region is usually considered to include, in addition to the city itself, at least the neighbouring cities of
Naantali,
Raisio and
Kaarina, and the town of
Lieto. Often too, municipalities such as
Pargas,
Piikkiö,
Paimio,
Aura,
Vahto,
Rusko and
Masku are included in this definition.
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 rural areas to the north 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.
Lying by the
Baltic Sea and sheltered by the islands of the
Archipelago Sea, Turku has a
continental 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), while the coldest is January at –6°C (21°F). The average year-round temperature is 5°C (41°F).
Precipitation in Turku averages 633
mm (25
inches) a year. The rainiest month of the year is August, when the city receives on average 85 mm (3.4 inches) of rainfall. In March, the driest month of the year, the figure is only 29 mm (1.1 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.
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. Armas Lahoniitty has been the
city manager of Turku since 1996. He is retiring in early 2006, and will be replaced by Mikko Pukkinen, the former city manager of
Seinäjoki.
The
city council and
municipal government 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 19 from
Kokoomus and 18 from SDP. The other major parties in the council are the
Left Alliance (10 seats) and the
Green League (9). The current chair of the city government is
Aleksi Randell from
Kokoomus.
Olavi Mäenpää, chairman of the
far-right organisation
Suomen Kansan Sinivalkoiset (SKS) and a prominent figure in Turku's municipal politics, has provoked some controversy in the local media. In the last municipal elections in 2004, he received more votes than any other candidate in Turku, probably in large part due to
protest votes. SKS is, however, a marginal force in the city's administration, having only two seats in the council.
|
The Föri, one of Turku's best known landmarks, is a small ferry carrying pedestrians and bicycles across the Aura river. |
For a city of its size, Turku has a good
public transportation network of
bus routes. It is managed and supervised by the
City of Turku Public Transport Office, and is operated mainly by private companies. All the major districts are served by buses every ten to fifteen minutes during the day, some even more frequently.
Regional buses are operated by private companies, most importantly
TLO, with very frequent services especially to the neighbouring cities of Naantali, Raisio, and Kaarina. TLO has been accused, however, of abusing its near-monopoly status by setting high fares.
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
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 line 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.
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
Ă…land, operated by
Silja Line,
Viking Line and
SeaWind Line. These are somewhat 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.
At the end of 2004 the Turku region (including the
economic districts of Turku and Ă…boland) 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, but is however decreasing at an annual rate of 1.3%.
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.
Throughout its history, Turku has always welcomed new influences: it was through Turku that the Swedish crown occupied what is today known as Finland. In the Middle Ages, it hosted German merchants, while engaging in trade with the Hanseatic League. Even today, the city has retained its tendency towards hospitality – it has a higher proportion of
immigrants than any other Finnish city. Recently, however, the increased numbers of immigrants, particularly in the city's eastern suburbs, has led to the outbreak of some
xenophobic sentiment (as shown by the growing support for the nationalist
Suomen Kansan Sinivalkoiset party), but ethnically motivated crimes are rare in Turku.
Famous people from the city of Turku include
Paavo Nurmi,
Mauno Koivisto,
Saku Koivu and the 18th century
botanist,
Herman Spöring. The Turku region has also brought forth many prominent personalities, including the
marshal,
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim.
Turku is the central economic hub of southwestern Finland, and the capital of the Turku
economic district. As of 2003, the district's
per capita income was €24,022, higher than the national average of €23,780.
The city's economy is centred around the Port of Turku and other service-oriented industries. 86 per cent of the city's
workforce are employed in the
services sector. 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. One of the exampels of high information technology in Turku area is
OpenSpark a Finlands largest WiFi community which Turku is also using. 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 2004, the city's
unemployment rate is 13.1%, well above the national average of 8.9%. The problem of unemployment is particularly troublesome in the districts of
Pansio,
Lauste, and Varissuo, where it hovers at around 23%.
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.
See also: Economy of Finland |
Two buildings of the University of Turku |
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 "
Academy of Ă…bo" (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.
Nowadays, the
University of Turku is the second largest university in Finland, as measured by student enrolment, and one of the oldest as well, having been founded in 1920. Turku is also home to several other establishments of higher education, namely
Ă…bo Akademi, Finland's only Swedish-language university,
Turun kauppakorkeakoulu (
Turku School of Economics and Business Administration), and
Turun ammattikorkeakoulu (
Turku University of Applied Sciences), the largest
polytechnic in Finland.
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, functioning in the eastern district of
Varissuo, has been operational since 2003.
The most widely read
newspaper in 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. 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).
Åbo Underrättelser, a Swedish language newspaper published in Turku, is the oldest newspaper in Finland, having been published since
1824.
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 in the Turku area. In addition, a number of local
radio stations, eg
Auran Aallot and
Radio Sata are operational.
 |
The Turku Castle was built in the 1280s |
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 at the
Cathedral of Turku. 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 boasts a vibrant nightlife.
There are also numerous
museums, such as the Turku Art Museum and the
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art. The Åbo Akademi University maintains the
Jean 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 a candidate city for
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.
Declaration of Christmas Peace
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. It is broadcast in Finnish radio (since 1935) and television, and nowadays also in some foreign countries.
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:
"Tomorrow, God willing, is the graceful celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour; and thus is declared a peaceful Christmas time to all, by advising devotion and to behave otherwise quietly and peacefully, because he who breaks this peace and violates the peace of Christmas by any illegal or improper behaviour shall under aggravating circumstances be guilty and punished according to what the law and statutes prescribe for each and every offence separately. Finally, a joyous Christmas feast is wished to all inhabitants of the city."
Sports
As in most other Finnish cities, the most popular sport is
ice hockey. The local club
TPS plays in the sport's top level in Finland, the
SM-liiga. It is based at
Elysée Arena 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.
Football is also an important sport, and the city has two teams in the
Veikkausliiga:
FC Inter and
TPS (which is part of the same organisation as the ice hockey team). Both teams play their home matches at the modern
Veritas Stadion in the district of
Kupittaa.
The
Paavo Nurmi Marathon is an annual sporting event in Turku, named after the world-famous runner who was born and raised in the city.
Turku has also been the sight 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.
Trivia
*On
January 28,
2006, American late-night
talk show host
Conan O'Brien announced that
Late Night with Conan O'Brien would visit Finland in about a month. He played a video in which Aleksi Randell, Chairman of the Executive City Board, invited O'Brien to visit Turku. The announcement followed months of publicity about how O'Brien resembles Finnish President
Tarja Halonen. [
1]
*
Saint Petersburg,
Russia, since
1953*
Szeged,
Hungary, since
1971*
Gdansk,
Poland, since
1958*
Florence,
Italy, since
1992*
Gothenburg,
Sweden, since
1946*
Aarhus,
Denmark, since
1946*
Rostock,
Germany, since
1963*
Bergen,
Norway, since
1946*
Cologne,
Germany, since
1967*
Varna,
Bulgaria, since
1963*
Bratislava,
Slovakia, since
1976*
ConstanĹŁa,
Romania, since
1963*
Tianjin,
China, since
2000Also:
*
Tartu,
Estonia (co-operation agreement)
*
Tallinn, Estonia (co-operation agreement)
*
Kuressaare, Estonia (co-operation agreement)
* 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''.
*
Turku - Official site
*
Turku - Finland's official Christmas City
*
Turku TouRing - A tourist organisation for the Turku region.
*
Turku Archipelago - "The world's most beautiful archipelago"
*
Local weather in Turku from the
Finnish Meteorological Institute.
*
Turun Sanomat - The city's most widely read newspaper
*
Turku Science Park*
Unikankare A culture
webzine based in Turku
*
Steamship s/s Ukkopekka cruise Turku-Naantali
