Turku tourist information

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, turgu, 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 Åbo, 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 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.

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.

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.

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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 somewhat of a Finnish cultural tradition, and people often travel long distances across Finland to Turku just to take a cruise across the Gulf of Bothnia.

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