4.5.2 Finland: Turku, the old capital
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
4.5.2 Finland: Turku, the old capital
Turku (Swedish: Åbo) is a port city in southwestern Finland at
the mouth of the river Aura, about 160 km west of Helsinki. It
has several important libraries, museums, and theaters. The
Swedish University of Åbo (Åbo Akademi, 1917) and the
University of Turku (1920) serve, respectively, the Swedish and
Finnish populations of this bilingual city.
Turku/Åbo is Finland's oldest city, founded sometime in the
early 13th century, but not very many old buildings remain
because of tens of disastrous fires, the worst one being that
of 1827 which destroyed the city almost completely. Most of the
buildings are, therefore, fairly new, with a couple of old
monuments remaining. Before the Russian takeover in 1809, Turku
was Finland's largest city and served as its capital. It was
rather heavily damaged during also during the WWII.
The city is divided by the river Aura, on the bank of which
rises the Turku Cathedral, the most important medieval
cathedral in Finland and a national sanctuary. It was started
in 1230, and it's present shape (except for the cupola and the
roof, which were built after the 1827 fire) dates from late
middle ages. In the cathedral are buried e.g the wife of Erik
XIV, Queen Karin Månsdotter (Kaarina Maununtytär) and some of
the most famous of Gustav II Adolf's military leaders from the
Thirty Years' War (the Finnish marshalls Evert Horn and Åke
Tott, the general of the Hakkapeliitta cavalry Torsten
Stålhandske and the Scottish colonel Samuel Cockburn). There's
also a museum in one of the galleries.
The other major medieval monument in Turku is the castle,
started in the 1310's. The castle acted as the main castle of
Finland in the middle ages and renaissance and experienced it's
best days in the 16th century when the duke of Finland, Johan,
held his court there together with the Polish-born princess
Katarina Jagellonica whom he married in 1562. Later, in 1568,
Johan imprisoned his brother, the mad renaissance king Erik
XIV, and he was held prisoner in Turku castle. It's an
impressive construction, but perhaps not exceptionally
romantic. In the river Aura, there are two 19th century
sailingships that act as museums, the Suomen Joutsen and Sigyn.
The Cloister Hill (Luostarinmäki) has an attractive collection
of simple wooden merchants houses that were spared from the
fire of 1827.
For more information on Turku: <http://www.tku.fi/>
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