Turku ( Åbo in Swedish) is a city of founded Finland in 1229. It is located at the south-west of the country to the mouth of the river Will have. With a population of 174.906 inhabitants (2006), it is the 5th city of the country (afterwards in the order Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere and Vantaa). The agglomeration, 3rd of the country, counts 300.000 inhabitants with as main cities Raisio (23 900 hab), Kaarina (22 100 hab), Lieto (15 400 hab) and Naantali (14 000 hab). Administratively, it is the capital of the area of Finland of South-west ( Varsinais-Suomi ) and of the province of Western Finland.

History

Until 1812, Turku was the capital of Finland, then subjugated with the kingdom of Sweden. When the Russia invades the country at the time of the Guerre of Finland, the capital was transferred to Helsinki, the Russians finding Turku geographically too near to Sweden. The capital remained in Helsinki since, and Turku lost its character of first order. Nowadays, the city remains the seat of the Eglise Finnish Lutheran.

On September 4th and 5th 1827, which was probably the largest fire of the Scandinavian countries devastated the city. Y were destroyed more than 2.500 buildings, that is to say two thirds of the city. Following this catastrophe, plannings of Turku was entrusted to the architect Carl Ludwig Engel. This one replaced the last traces of medieval construction by a squared plan with the broad, right and parallel streets. The downtown area is always built besides according to the plans of Engel. (plan of the city before (1808)… and after the fire (1897)). After the fire, the university was transferred to Helsinki, Turku still losing a little its influence. But until about 1850, it remained the city most populated in Finland.

Culture and education

The Academy of Arts of Turku, is known all over the world, in particular, for its department of Cinéma of animation (integrated before into the School of art and communication of Turku).

Two old universities divide the students:

• the University of Turku (finnophone);
• the Academy of Åbo (suédophone).

Twinnings

The city continues a very active policy of twinning, seeking the relations with second towns of their country, religious centers or old capitals.

Sports

As in the majority of the cities of the country, the most popular sport with Turku is the Hockey; TPS Turku evolves/moves in the highest division of the country (Sm-liiga) and gained the championship 10 times. A second professional club also evolves/moves in Turku, the TuTo Turku, in the second division.

The Football has as an important place downtown, with the Inter Turku and TPS (this last belonging to the same organization as the club of hockey), two clubs evolving/moving within the Veikkausliiga.

Demographic trends

! Year!! Population!! |- |1860||16  870 |- |1870||19  617 |- |1880||23  947 |- |1890||30  096 |- |1900||31  658 |- |1910||41  993 |- |1920||45  408 |- |1930||53  681 |- |1940||65  475 |- |1950||100  514 |- |1960||123  285 |- |1970||155  069 |- |1980||163  933 |- |1990||159  539 |- |2000||172  107 |- |2005||174  824 |}

External bonds

• Town of Turku
• University of Turku
• Åbo Akademi, university suédophone of Åbo

Simple: Turku

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