Turku, European Capital of Culture - January 15, 2011

"The spectacle of fireworks consisted of about 5000 single shots"

"The churches of Turku rang their bells for 15 minutes at midday on Saturday, sounding off the year of culture. The festivities continued with sound artist Simo Alitalo’s River Aura Symphony along the Aura, which included sounds from 13 churches and ships"...read more here.

"Over 50,000 people followed the children's lantern parade and came to watch the amazing opening performance by Aurajoki River. The freezing temperatures did not seem to bother the audience as it watched the drums, flags and flames communicate over the river. The backdrop to all this grandeur was one of the largest ever fire spectacles.

The former Wärtsilä Shipyard was chosen over a year ago as the stage for the British Walk the Plank group. The place encapsulates Turku’s past: highly competent, international, the river and the sea. Read more here."

Ancient sea empires of "Sweden" and "Finland" 1000 years ago

Turku & Tallinn – Partners in culture and history. Turku, (Turu in Estonian and Åbo in Swedish) was founded in 1229 and is Finland's oldest city. The origins of the Finnish name come from the word "market".  Over a thousand years ago Turku and the southwest part of Finland formed a maritime power together with western Estonia, according to Matti Klinge in "Ancient Powers of the Baltic Sea".

Turku became an important city during the late 1200s, when the Dominican monastery of St. Olof, the Castle of Turku and the Turku Cathedral (Toomkirik) were built, and remained the most important city for the next 300 years under the Swedish Empire. The first university in Finland was built in Turku in 1640.

In 1809 Turku became the capital of the newly created Grand Duchy of Finland, which now belonged to the Russian Empire under Tsar Alexander I, Sweden having lost the war with Russia. Since Alexander wanted to lessen the Swedish influence, he made Helsinki the capital of the Grand Duchy in 1812 and also moved the university there in 1828. (The current University of Turku was established in 1920 and is the second largest in the country). 

Turku continued to be the most populous city in Finland until the end of the 1840s;  today it is Finland's fifth largest city with over 177,000 people.

It is fitting that both Turku and Tallinn share the honour of being European Capitals of Culture in 2011.

For more interesting information about Turku, go to  the tourim site, here in English.  Don't forget the Estonian version  - the content is richer with more photos!