Turku
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.
Turku has a long history as Finland's largest city and occasionally as the administrative center of the country, but for the last two hundred years has been surpassed by Helsinki.
Settlement in the Turku area is relatively recent, as the Southwestern Finland remained below sea level for an extended period due to the Ice Age.
[4] According to the permission granted by Pope Gregory IX on 23 January 1229,[4] the episcopal seat was moved from Nousiainen to Koroinen, which is located near the current center of Turku.
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 the Hanseatic League.
[36] Särkilahti's student Mikael 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.
[14][45][46] 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.
After the fall of communism in Russia, many prominent Soviets came to Turku to study Western business practices, among them Vladimir Putin, then Leningrad's deputy mayor.
[citation needed] As many of the small neighbouring municipalities from the north and south of the city were annexed during the mid-20th century, Turku is today shaped like an elongated pear.
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 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.
[20] As both English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon.
The city has also business branches with local expertise in the maritime, life sciences, information technology, entertainment, biotechnology, and sustainable development industries.
The city also boasts a high-tech centre in the Turku Science Park area, with a growing role in the information technology and biotechnology industries in recent decades.
Other major companies which have operations in Turku include Bayer, Fläkt Woods, Meyer Werft, Orion Corporation and Wärtsilä.
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 the Sibelius Museum, which displays a collection of musical instruments, can be found.
[76] The Pharmacy 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.
Located in the city centre on the banks of the River Aura, it offers a varied programme of classical and contemporary drama.
The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest ensemble in Finland, tracing its origins to the establishment of the Turun Soitannollinen Seura in 1790.
[81] Humorous topics include Tampere's traditional dish, mustamakkara, Turku's Aura River, and distinct regional accents.
[82][83] Turku has two major football teams: FC Inter, playing in the top national league, Veikkausliiga, and TPS in Ykkönen, one level below.
The HC TPS is an ice hockey team that competes in the top level, SM-liiga, and has secured 11 national championships.
Turku is home to the Eagles Rugby Football Club, a division champion affiliated with Suomen Rugbyliitto, which trains and competes at Impivaara Jalkapallonhalli and Kuppitaanpuisto.
Being both a regional and provincial capital, Turku is an important administrative centre, hosting the seat of the Archbishop of Finland and a Court of Appeal.
The bus network is managed and supervised by the Turku City Region's Public Transport Committee (FÖLI) (Finnish: Turun kaupunkiseudun joukkoliikennelautakunta, Swedish: kollektivtrafiknämnden för Åbo stadsregion), and is operated mainly by private companies.
These are something of a Finnish cultural tradition (see ruotsinlaiva), and people often travel long distances across Finland to Turku just to take a cruise across the Gulf of Bothnia.
In 1820, the first school in Finland conforming to the Bell-Lancaster method was founded in Turku with the aim of making primary education more inclusive to the lower classes.
Bachelors of Business Administration, Social Services and Health Care Nursing study at Salo IoT Campus.
[102] There are also a number of local newspapers such as Kulmakunta (for the eastern suburbs of Turku, including Varissuo and Lauste), and Rannikkoseutu (for the area around the neighbouring cities of Raisio and Naantali).
