Welcome to Turku!
Turku (Swedish: Åbo) is the oldest city and former capital of Finland. It was settled during the 13th century, making it one of the only few, and by far the largest, medieval cities in Finland. Turku is the cradle of Finnish culture since over the years it has played an important role as the gateway to Finland for international influence. Nowadays Turku is a vivid city with clusters of maritime and medical businesses.
Bisecting Turku city center, the River Aura is the heart and soul of the city: this is where Turku was born, and a large part of city life – museums, sights, restaurants, and cafés – is still concentrated on the riverside. The river banks form a national urban park allowing for a pleasant stroll from the Turku Cathedral to the Turku Castle. Close to the river mouth is the island of Ruissalo, with oak forests and 19th-century villas. Turku is at its best in summertime, when it hosts many festivals, including rock festivals, chamber music festivals and a medieval fair. But do not forget the winter atmosphere, if you are lucky you may be able to have a thrilling walk on the ice cover of River Aura.
In addition to the cultural sights and museums, Turku attracts visitors due to the Archipelago Sea, which stretches all the way from Turku to Åland and on to Stockholm, forming the largest archipelago in the world by the number of islands and islets.
Turku (Russian: Турку, formerly Або) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) and the former Turku and Pori Province (Turun ja Porin lääni, 1634–1997). The region was originally called Suomi (Finland), which later became the name for the whole country. As of 31 March 2021, the population of Turku was 194,244 making it the sixth largest city in Finland after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, and Oulu. There were 330,192 inhabitants living in the Turku sub-region, ranking it as the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere sub-region. The city is officially bilingual as 5.2 percent of its population identifies Swedish as a mother tongue. It is unknown when Turku gained city rights. Pope Gregory IX first mentioned the town Aboa in his Bulla in 1229 and the year is now used as the foundation year of Turku. Turku is the oldest city in Finland and served as the most important city in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden (modern-day Finland). After the Finnish war, Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire in 1809. Turku lost its status as the capital of the Grand Duchy in 1812 when Tsar Alexander I of Russia decided to move the capital to Helsinki. It was only after the last great fire in 1827 that most governmental institutions were moved to Helsinki along with the Royal Academy of Turku (Turun Akatemia) founded in 1640, which then became the University of Helsinki, thus consolidating Helsinki's position as the new capital. Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland until the end of the 1840s, and it remains the regional capital and an important business and cultural center and port.
Because of its long history, it has been the site of many important events and has extensively influenced Finnish history as the former capital city. Along with Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Turku was designated the European Capital of Culture for 2011. In 1996, it was declared the "Christmas City" of Finland. Also, Turku has been officially declared the Food Capital of Finland, because it holds a number of Finland's oldest and high-quality restaurants and a historically famous fish market held twice a year. Turku's canteen and café culture has often been compared to French food culture, which is why Turku has also been perceived as the "Paris of Finland", this is also the reason for the Swedish saying: "Varför Paris, vi har ju Åbo!" ("Why Paris, we have Turku!")Due to its location, Turku is a notable commercial and passenger seaport with over three million passengers traveling through the Port of Turku each year to Stockholm and Mariehamn.