Turku is Finland's oldest city.[1] It is not known when Turku was grantedcity status.Pope Gregory IX first mentioned the town ofAboa in hisBulla in 1229, and this year is now used as the founding year of the city.[4][5][14] Turku was the most important city in the eastern part (today's Finland) of theKingdom of Sweden. After theFinnish War, Finland became anautonomous Grand Duchy of theRussian Empire in 1809, and Turku became the capital of the Grand Duchy. However, Turku lost its status as capital only three years later in 1812,[1] whenTsarAlexander I of Russia decided to move the capital toHelsinki. It was only after the lastgreat fire in 1827 that most government institutions were moved to Helsinki along with theRoyal Academy of Turku, founded in 1640, which later became theUniversity of Helsinki, thus consolidating Helsinki's position as the new capital. Turku was Finland's most populous city until the late 1840s and remains the regional capital, an important business and cultural centre, and a port.
Due toits long history, Turku has been the site of many important events and, as a former capital, has had a major influence onFinnish history. Together withTallinn, the capital ofEstonia, Turku was namedEuropean Capital of Culture for 2011. In 1996, the city of Turku was declared the "Christmas City" of Finland.[15] Turku has also been officially declared the Food Capital of Finland,[16][17] as it is home to some of Finland's oldest and highest-quality restaurants, as well as a historically famousfish market held twice a year.[18] Turku'scanteen andcafé culture has often been compared toFrench food culture, which is why Turku is sometimes known as the "Paris of Finland",[1][2][3][19] and explains the existence of the Swedish saying"Varför Paris, vi har ju Åbo!" ("Why [should we concern ourselves with] Paris? We have Turku!").[2]
Turku is abilingual municipality withFinnish andSwedish as its official languages. The population consists of78% Finnish speakers,5% Swedish speakers, and17% speakers of other languages, which is well above the national average.[20]
Due to its location, thePort of Turku is an important commercial and passengerseaport, with over three million passengers travelling toStockholm andMariehamn each year.[21]
The Finnish nameTurku is related to the wordtorg, which is found in the Scandinavian and modern Russian languages and means "market".[22] Although direct borrowing from Old Russiantŭrgŭ (търгъ) is often assumed,[23][24] it is more likely that the word spread throughVarangian trade networks than through the presence of Russian merchants in Finland.[25] According to linguistKaisa Häkkinen [fi], the word likely entered Finnish viaEstonian, whereturg still retains the meaning "market".[26] Over time, the original meaning faded in Finnish, and by the Middle Ages,turku had become synonymous with the town's name. Today the word survives primarily inidiomatic expressions.[27]
For the Swedish name, the most widely accepted interpretation holds thatÅbo is a simple combination ofå ("river, creek, large stream") andbo ("dwelling, settlement"), referring to a settlement by the Aura River.[28] Nevertheless, several alternative interpretations have been proposed. One suggests that the name derives from the personal nameAbraham, possibly in a shortened form such asAbo. Another theory considersÅbo a reinterpretation or translation of the Finnish nameTurku. A third possibility links the name to monastic naming traditions, particularly the Dominican monastery atÅhus in Skåne, which may have served as a model when theDominican order established a monastery in the area during the 13th century. Linguist Mikko Heikkilä has also proposed that Åbo developed from an earlier, unattested formAborg, which would have originally referred to theVanhalinna hillfort in nearbyLieto.[23]
InFinnish, thegenitive ofTurku isTurun, meaning "of Turku". The Finnish names of organizations and institutes of Turku often begin with this word, as inTurun yliopisto for theUniversity of Turku.
Turku has a long history asFinland's largest city and occasionally as the administrative center of the country, but for the last two hundred years has been surpassed byHelsinki. The city's identity stems from its status as the oldest city in Finland[29] and the country's first capital.[14] Originally, the word "Finland" referred only to the area around Turku (hence the title, "Finland Proper" for the region).
Settlement in the Turku area is relatively recent, for southwestern Finland remained below sea level for an extended period due to theIce Age. Due totectonic uplift, the Turku region transformed from an outlyingarchipelago to a shoreline during 3000-2000 BCE. The area was densely populated during theIron Age as it was the most important agricultural region in the region.[30] Ancient cemeteries dating from 550 to 1150 have been discovered in the region. Some cemeteries were utilized during the initial migratory phase, while some were solely utilized during the Viking Age, and others were established in the 12th century. There are also remains of houses and villages and old forts from the late Iron Age.[31]
According to legend, the Englishbishop Henry baptised the first Finns into Christianity in 1150. However, the first Christian graves date from the 10th and 11th centuries, and the first archaeological evidence of a church dates from the 12th century.[32] In the 11th century, the Turku region began to develop as a port.[30] The oldest known road,Hämeen härkätie, connected to region and theOld Castle of Lieto toTavastia in the 9th century at the latest.[33] Early literary sources such asAl-Idrisi's world map from 1154 mentions Turku.[4]
According to the permission granted byPope Gregory IX on 23 January 1229,[4] the episcopal seat was moved fromNousiainen toKoroinen, which is located near the current center of Turku.[5] There is nothing to suggest that the actual city of Turku still existed at this point; however, the city was not founded on uninhabited land, but there were fields and probably also a peasant village.[34] Since no reliable document has survived about the year of the city's founding, it has also been speculated that the city was founded in the 1280s or 1290s by the joint initiative of the king, the bishop, and theDominican Convent of Saint Olaf [sv], which itself was founded in 1249.[35]
Turku Cathedral wasconsecrated in 1300.[14][36] During theMiddle Ages, Turku was the seat of theBishop of Turku (a title later upgraded toArchbishop of Turku), covering then the eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden (most of the present-day Finland) until the 17th century. Even if Turku had no official capital status, it was for a long time the most important city in Finland as part of the trade and shipping of theHanseatic League. In the 14th century, two-thirds of the city's burghers were German, but gradually the proportion of domestic burghers increased.[37] In addition to the ecclesiastical authority, the onlylawspeakers in Finland operated in Turku, and from the 15th century to the 16th century, the court exercising the country's highest judicial power, theLand Court of Turku [sv], met in the city.[38]
At the beginning of the 16th century, in connection with the disputes of theKalmar Union, the Danes destroyed the city twice, in 1509 under the leadership of AdmiralOtte Rud and in 1522 under the leadership of AdmiralSøren Norby,[38] untilErik Fleming's troops expelled the Danes from Finland in 1523.[39] After the beginning of peace,Gustav Vasa, who had just become king, thoroughly got to know different parts of his kingdom, the center of the king's first visit to Finland being Turku Castle, where he lived during his visit.[40] The new king also brought with him the religiousreformation, and the first to preach the new doctrine wasPetrus Särkilahti.[41] Särkilahti's studentMikael Agricola, who is known as the "father of Finnish literary language", continued the religious reform first as the headmaster of the cathedral school and later as the Bishop of Turku.[42] Duke John (laterJohn III), the son of Gustav Vasa, received the title ofDuke of Finland and ruled his territory from Turku Castle before becoming next king of Sweden after his brother,Eric XIV.[43]
After theFinnish War, Sweden ceded Finland toImperial Russia at theTreaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809. There was no resistance of any kind in Turku when the Russians marched into the city in October 1809 in connection with the Finnish War. Despite the occupation, life in Turku continued peacefully. The Court of Appeal of Turku continued its session when the Russians arrived, and later in the springJacob Tengström, theArchbishop of Turku and Finland, and the teaching staff of the Turku Academy swore an oath of loyalty to their new ruler.[49]
Turku became briefly the official capital,[14] but soon lost the status to Helsinki, as EmperorAlexander I felt that Turku was too far from Russia and too aligned with Sweden to serve as the capital of theGrand Duchy of Finland. The change officially took place in 1812. The government offices that remained in Turku were finally moved to the new capital after theGreat Fire of Turku, which destroyed a large portion of the city in 1827.[14][50][51] After the fire, a new and safer city plan was drawn up by German architectCarl Ludvig Engel, who had also designed the new capital, Helsinki.[52] The new city plan, based on a regulargrid plan, was more spacious and fire-safe than before,[53] and after the reconstruction, Turku was one of the most unified architecture in Europe.[51] Turku remained the largest city in Finland for another twenty years.
In the middle of the 19th century, Turku was, after Helsinki, the most important craft city in Finland, but theIndustrial Revolution withsteam andelectric machines was experienced in Turku only around 1900. TheFirst World War provided a boost to the city's industry, as the export difficulties affected thewood industry, which Turku didn't have much of, and it was easy to get much-needed raw materials from neutral Sweden.[54]
In 1918, a new university, theÅbo Akademi – the onlySwedish-language university in Finland – was founded in Turku.[55] Two years later, theFinnish-languageUniversity of Turku was founded alongside it. These two universities are the second and third to be founded in Finland, both by private donations.
In the 20th century, Turku was called "Finland's gateway to the West" by historians such asJarmo Virmavirta [fi].[56] The city enjoyed good connections with other Western European countries and cities, especially since the 1940s withStockholm across theGulf of Bothnia. In the 1960s, Turku became the first Western city to sign atwinning agreement withLeningrad in theSoviet Union, leading to greater inter-cultural exchange and providing a new meaning to the city's 'gateway' function. After thefall of communism in Russia, many prominent Soviets came to Turku to study Western business practices, among themVladimir Putin, then Leningrad's deputy mayor.[57]
As for architecture in the city, both the body of architectural styles as well as the prevalent way of living have experienced significant changes in the 20th century. While having survived relatively intact throughout the years of war 1939–1945[citation needed], the city faced increasing changes in the 1950s and 1960s due to rising demands for apartments, the eagerness to rebuild, and most of all the new development of infrastructure (especially increased automobile traffic). The wooden one- to two-story houses that were the dominant mode of building in the city were mostly demolished in the 1950s and 1960s to both enable more efficient building and to ease vehicle traffic. This resulted in the destruction of buildings that were, in later decades, seen as beautiful and worth saving.[note 1] Some individual buildings remain controversial to this day when it comes to their demolition in the decades after the war. For example, the building ofHotel Phoenix [fi] that stood on corner of theMarket Square was torn down to make way for a large, multistory apartment building in 1959. The building was significant both for its location and history: having stood on one of the most valuable lots in the city center since 1878, the building had, for example, served as the first main building of the University of Turku. Other buildings whose demolition was seen as scandalous, either already at the time of action or proved to be so in later years, includeThe Nobel House [fi] (subject of the very first photograph ever taken in Finland) and the building ofOld Hotel Börs which was built in jugendstil in 1909 byFrithiof Strandell [fi].
Situated at the mouth of theAura River in the south-western corner of Finland, Turku covers an area of 245 square kilometres (95 sq mi) on both banks of the river. The eastern side, whereTurku Cathedral is located, is the older and original centre. It is popularly known astäl pual jokke ("this side of the river"). The western side, whereTurku Castle is located, is the newer part. It is calledtois pual jokke ("the other side of the river").[59] In modern times, both banks of the Aura River are equally thecentre of the city.[60]
There are ten bridges over the Aura river in Turku. The oldest of the current bridges isAuransilta [fi], which was constructed in 1904. The newest bridge isKirjastosilta [fi] ('library bridge'), a pedestrian-only bridge built in 2013.[61] TheFöri, a small ferry that transports pedestrians and bicycles across the river without payment, is a well-known feature of the city.
IV District, or Martti, is one of the smallest but most densely populated districts of Turku
The city is divided into 78 districts and ninewards.[62] These do not operate as units of local government. However, some social programmes are district-based, especially in the eastern part of the city, where unemployment is high in some areas. The largest populated districts areVarissuo andRunosmäki. By area,Kakskerta andPaattinen are the largest districts.[citation needed]
As many of the small neighbouringmunicipalities 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 northern rural areas by the Turkubypass, that forms part ofEuropean route E18. Islands such asRuissalo,Hirvensalo andKakskerta, 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 intoupper-middle-class suburbs.
Situated by theBaltic Sea and sheltered by the islands of theArchipelago Sea, Turku has ahumid continental climate (KöppenDfb). 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 17.5 °C (64 °F), whereas the coldest month is February. The average year-round temperature is around 6.0 °C (43 °F). Winter usually starts in early December, and spring in late March.
Precipitation in Turku averages 720 mm (28.3 in) a year. The rainiest month of the year is August, when the city receives on average 80 mm (3.1 in) of rainfall. In April, the driest month of the year, the figure is only 32 mm (1.3 in). The averageair pressure at sea level is 101.2 kilopascals (29.9 inHg), with little variance throughout the year.
Operational since 1955, the city'sweather station is located at an altitude of 47 metres (154 feet) atTurku Airport.[63] The weather in the city itself is affected by the proximity of the sea, so the wintertime temperatures are often milder than those measured at the airport. The moderating impact of the sea helps oak maple and ash trees, which are quite rare elsewhere in Finland, to thrive by the areas along the shoreline and in the archipelago.[64]
Climate data for Turku Airport (elevation 47 m) 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1900–present
Climate data for Turku Artukainen (elevation 8 m) averages and records 2003–2023, precipitation 2003–2005 Turku Airport, since 2006 Artukainen, sunshine 1991–2020
The city of Turku has 206,655 inhabitants, making it the 6th most populous municipality in Finland. TheTurku metropolitan area has a population of 316,535, and the largerTurku sub-region has a population of 352,527. This makes it the third-largest region in Finland afterHelsinki andTampere. Turku is home to 4% of Finland's population. 17 per cent of the population has a foreign background, which is almost twice as high as the national average. However, it is lower than in the major Finnish cities ofHelsinki,Espoo orVantaa.[20]
The city's population density is 794.4 inhabitants per square kilometre. The median age in the city is 42.1, lower than the national average of 43.6.
The city of Turku is officiallybilingual, with bothFinnish andSwedish as official languages. As of 2024[update], the majority of the population, 160,561 persons (77.9%), spoke Finnish as their first language. The number ofSwedish speakers was 11,164 persons (5.4%) of the population. Foreign languages were spoken by16.7% of the population.[20] AsEnglish andSwedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.
More than a hundred different languages are spoken as mother tongues in Turku, and citizens from more than 130 countries live in the city. The people of Turku also represent all major religions. The most commonly spoken foreign languages are Russian (1.9%),Arabic (1.8%),Albanian (1.2%),Kurdish (1.2%),Ukrainian (0.9%) andSomali (0.9%).[20]
As of 2024[update], there were 35,088 people with a foreign background living in Turku, or 17% of the population.[note 2] There were 31,223 residents who were born abroad, or 15% of the population. The number of foreign citizens in Turku was 21,665.[20]
The relative share of immigrants in Turku's population is well above the national average. Moreover, the city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years.
In 2023, theEvangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 56.3% of the population of Turku. Other religious groups accounted for 3.3% of the population. 40.4% of the population had no religious affiliation.[72]
MSIcon of the Seas, the world's largest passenger ship, was built in Turku
The Turku region boasts 22,000 enterprises, two universities and four polytechnics. The city has also business branches with local expertise in themaritime,life sciences, information technology, entertainment,biotechnology, andsustainable development industries.[73] The city's economic hub revolves around thePort of Turku and other service-oriented sectors. The dockyard ofMeyer Turku and the maritime business cluster reign as the leading industrial employer in the area. The city also boasts a high-tech centre in theTurku Science Park area, with a growing role in the information technology and biotechnology industries in recent decades.[74]
The Turku region hosts the business service centrePotkuri and the start-up communitySparkUp. In addition, theWest Finland Film Commission works to promote favourable operating conditions for companies in the AV industry and for the production of films and TV series in the Turku region.Turku Future Technologies is a development centre and research and innovation network supported by eight Finnish universities.Smart Chemistry Park is a collaborative platform and network for the bio- and circular economy as well as the chemical industry inRaisio. Meanwhile,Blue Industry Park is a growing cluster for maritime and manufacturing industries.[73]
Turku was theEuropean Capital of Culture in 2011,[77] and the city council has approved numerous projects to boost the city's image in preparation for that status.
According to archaeological evidence, the construction of Turku began in the late 13th Century.[78] However, only a few of its medieval buildings have survived to the present day. The primary factor was theGreat Fire in 1827, which decimated three quarters of the city.[79]Turku Cathedral, constructed in the 13th century, is one of the oldest still-functioning buildings. It is also Finland's only medieval basilica church.[80] Another surviving edifice from the medieval era isTurku Castle, which was established in the 1280s and underwent several expansions in the 15th century. Only the ruins remain of the bishop's church in Koroistenniemi,Koroinen, but the white cross serves as a reminder of the bishop's castle that existed centuries ago.Qwensel House, the oldest wooden house in Turku dating back to the 18th century, has been converted into a museum. No other medieval buildings have survived to the present day.[81]
Qwensel House (left) and the old town hall. A small ferry runs in the river.
Most of Turku's museums are situated beside theAura River. TheTurku Art Museum is housed in a granite castle, with exhibits of both classical and contemporary art. Turku Cathedral and its museum, located on the banks of the Aura River, provide information about the history and artifacts of the church. Adjacent to the cathedral,Ett Hem, a 19th-century bourgeois residence, and theSibelius Museum, which displays a collection of musical instruments, can be found.Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova presents a fusion of medieval ruins and modern art. OnVartiovuori, lies theLuostarinmäki Craftsman Museum, which represents a wooden housing locality dating back to the 18th century.[82]
ThePharmacy Museum and Qwensel House hold the distinction of being Turku's earliest wooden abode, offering a glimpse into the bourgeois life of the 18th century and a 19th-century drugstore. Thecontemporary art museum, WAM, is named after Turku's sculptor,Wäinö Aaltonen. Additionally, theBiological Museum serves as a diorama museum covering Finnish wildlife and fauna.Forum Marinum is a maritime museum of exhibits and museum vessels, including the frigateSuomen Joutsen and the last commercial steam ship in ScandinaviaMS Bore. Turku Castle is an attraction with over 700 years of history.[82]
There are half a dozen theatres situated in Turku, with the largest being theTurku City Theatre. Located in the city centre on the banks of the River Aura, it offers a varied programme of classical and contemporary drama. Other theatres in Turku includeLinnateatteri [fi],Åbo Svenska Teater,TEHDAS andTurun Nuori Teatteri, in addition to smaller establishments such as the puppet theatre,Aura of Puppets, and the summer theatres, Samppalinna and Vartiovuori.[83]
Turku is a music hub that provides a variety of musical experiences. TheTurku Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest ensemble in Finland, tracing its origins to the establishment of theTurun Soitannollinen Seura in 1790. The orchestra has a reputation for its classical repertoire and frequently conducts concerts throughout Finland.[84]
Turku boasts a selection of music festivals, catering to diverse tastes and moods. The longest running rock festival in Finland,Ruisrock, is held on the island of Ruissalo.Aura Fest is a new city-based festival, set to debut in the summer of 2022.DBTL is another city festival, situated along the banks of the Aura River.Turku Jazz is an annual festival in July. August sees theTurku Music Festival, dedicated to classical music.[84]
The Finnish people associate Turku with its "old and historic" charm.[85] Established in 1957,Turkuseura-Åbosamfundet ry is a bilingual, politically neutral historical society with 2,200 members. Its main focus is to cherish Turku's culture anddialect, and to preserve local history and traditions. The society strives to promote and enhance Turku's positive image.[86]
Turku andTampere are two cities in Finland that exhibit a cordial rivalry through humorous banter.[87] Humorous topics include Tampere's traditional dish,mustamakkara, Turku's Aura River, and distinct regional accents. Both cities boast excellent culinary scenes, which attract food lovers. Since 1997, students from Tampere have annually visited Turku to participate in the custom of leaping on the market square. This lively event is thought to nudge the city towards the Baltic Sea and counteractpost-glacial rebound.[88][89]
TheHC TPS is an ice hockey team that competes in the top level,SM-liiga, and has secured 11 national championships. They play their games atGatorade Center inArtukainen.
Turku is home to theEagles Rugby Football Club, a division champion affiliated withSuomen Rugbyliitto, which trains and competes at Impivaara Jalkapallonhalli and Kuppitaanpuisto.
Turku Titans is alacrosse club with a rich history, having scored three silver and one gold medals in Finland's national lacrosse league.[90] The Titans' women's team has also achieved success. Furthermore, the city hosted the FIL U19 2012World Lacrosse Championships.[91]
Finnish tennis playerJarkko Nieminen, from the nearby county ofMasku, is among the most accomplished players in Finland.
Turku is an important administrative centre, being theregional capital, and hosting the seat of theArchbishop of Finland and aCourt of Appeal.Minna Arve has been the mayor of Turku since 2017.[92] Since August 2021 her role as the mayor has been an elected office instead of a hired position.[93][94]
Thecity council of Turku has 67 seats. Following the2021 municipal election, the council seats are allocated in the following way: National Coalition Party 16 seats, Social Democrats 13, Left Alliance 11, Green League 10, True Finns 9, Centre Party 3, Swedish People's Party 3, Movement Now 1, and Christian Democrats 1.[95] The current chair of the city board isSini Ruohonen from National Coalition Party.
For a city of its size, Turku has a moderate public transport network of bus routes, which is comparable to the bus network of similar-sizedTampere. The bus network is managed and supervised by theTurku City Region's Public Transport Committee (FÖLI) (Finnish:Turun kaupunkiseudun joukkoliikennelautakunta,Swedish:kollektivtrafiknämnden för Åbo stadsregion), and is operated mainly by private companies. Bus traffic to and in the neighbouring municipalities of Kaarina, Lieto, Naantali, Raisio and Rusko are also handled by FÖLI. The bus rates are the same when traveling within these municipalities.[96]
Rail traffic to and from Turku is handled by the Finnish national carrier,VR. 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 theTurku Central railway station inPohjola, and two smaller stations inKupittaa and thePort of Turku.
There is no local rail traffic at the moment, as the city's popular 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.[citation needed] However, there are plans for alight rail system in the Turku region in the near future. According to the current estimate the tramway's construction will start in 2026 and finish in 2031. The first route will be constructed between Turku Port−City Centre−Varissuo residential area. Route's estimated length is 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) with 17 stops.[97]
The first outdoor inclined elevator, the Funicular, is located in Turku. The elevator offers unimpeded access to Kakolanmäki hill, where there is no other public transport. The Funicular has two stations, and the travelling time between the stations is approximately one minute. It is possible to hop on and off at both stations, and travelling is free of charge. The elevator's rail is about 130 metres long, and the height difference between the two stations is about 30 metres.[98]
The State of Finland has announced plans to supportEspoo with 30% of full expenses on a new metro rail, the Regional Council of Southwest Finland is going to use this as a test case for a new light rail network in Turku.[99]
The Turku Bus Station and the Turku Central railway station are currently located in different places. The City of Turku is planning to combine these two in a new greater station complex in the near future. This new travel center will consist of a hotel and several shopping estates. This center will connect all public transportation from commuter trains to long-distance buses.
Turku Airport is located 8 kilometres (5 miles) to the north of the city centre, partly in the neighbouring municipality ofRusko. The airport is served by six passenger airlines, includingairBaltic andSAS Scandinavian, and one cargo airline.
There are also daily ferry services from thePort of Turku to Sweden andÅland, operated bySilja Line andViking Line. These are something of a Finnish cultural tradition (seeruotsinlaiva), and people often travel long distances across Finland to Turku just to take acruise across the Gulf of Bothnia.
Turku has a longer educational history than any other Finnish city: the first school in the city, theCathedral School, was founded along with Turku Cathedral in the late 13th century. The first university in Finland, theRoyal Academy of Turku (nowUniversity of Helsinki), was established in the city in 1640. In 1820, the first school in Finland conforming to theBell-Lancaster method was founded in Turku with the aim of making primary education more inclusive to the lower classes.
Turku is home to about 40 000 higher education students.[100] There are two universities and several "polytechnics" in the town.
The FinnishUniversity of Turku is the fourth-largest[101] university in Finland (22,300 students in 2022), as measured by student enrollment, and one of the oldest as well, having been founded in 1920. Approximately 9% of all students are international students.[102]Åbo Akademi, founded in 1918 as the second university of Finland, is one of the country's two Swedish-language universities.Turku School of Economics merged with The University of Turku in 2010, and Åbo handelshögskola, its Swedish counterpart, with Åbo Akademi in 1980. The central hospital of Turku,Turku University Hospital, is affiliated with the university and is used as a teaching hospital.
Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) is the second largestpolytechnic in Finland (12,000 students in 2022[103]) after Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. TUAS consists of six campus buildings in Turku and one separate campus in town ofSalo. Bachelors of Business Administration, Social Services and Health Care Nursing study at Salo IoT Campus.[104] TUAS offers Bachelor and Master studies in over 70 fields of education.[105]
Turku is one of only two cities in Finland to have an established international school (the other city being Helsinki).Turku International School, located in the eastern district ofVarissuo, has been operating since 2003. By an agreement signed between the city of Turku and theUniversity of Turku,Turun normaalikoulu takes care of the teaching in the international school.[106]
The most widely readnewspaper of Turku and the area around it is the daily regional morning newspaperTurun Sanomat, which has a readership of over 70% of the population every day.Åbo Underrättelser, a Swedish-language newspaper published in Turku, is the oldest newspaper in Finland, having been published since 1824. The free-of-chargeTurkulainen newspaper was also among the most popular newspapers, together with the local edition ofMetro International and the national eveningtabloidIlta-Sanomat.[107]Turkulainen was founded in 1958, but the newspaper has been on a publishing break since 2020.[108] There are also a number of local newspapers such asKulmakunta (for the eastern suburbs of Turku, including Varissuo and Lauste), andRannikkoseutu (for the area around the neighbouring cities of Raisio and Naantali).
The first Finnish newspaper,Tidningar Utgifne Af et Sällskap i Åbo, in Swedish, was begun in Turku in 1771, as well as the first Finnish-language newspaper,Suomenkieliset Tieto-Sanomat, which was begun in 1775.
The newspaperTurun Sanomat also operated a regional television station, calledTurku-TV, but the station stopped operating in 2012.[109] The Finnish national broadcasterYleisradio screens local news, daily from Monday to Friday, for the residents of southwestern Finland (including the regions ofSouthwest Finland andSatakunta). AllFinnish national TV channels are viewable and national radio channels audible in the Turku area. In addition, a number of local radio stations, e.g.Auran Aallot,Radio Sata andRadio Robin Hood are operational. Localpublic service radio stations areYle Turun Radio broadcasting in Finnish (the regional version ofYle Radio Suomi) andYle Vega Åboland broadcasting in Swedish (the regional version ofYle Vega).
Saku andMikko Koivu, ice hockey playing brothers playing respectively in Montréal and Anaheim Ducks andMinnesota Wild as an alternate captain and captain
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![Turku Art Museum [fi] is a classical example of Romantic nationalism in architecture.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTurku_Museum_of_Art.jpg)
