Portal:Finland
Selected article
Turku (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈturku], Swedish: 
Åbo (help·info)) is a city in Finland, founded in the 13th century. Turku is the fifth largest city in Finland, with a population of 175 286 (2007), and is located in the south-west of the country at the mouth of the Aura river. It is the capital city of both the region of Finland Proper and the province of Western Finland, as well as being the centre of the country's third largest urban area with over 300,000 inhabitants.
Turku is the former capital and oldest city in Finland, having been founded on an as yet undetermined date during the late 13th century. It has a long history as the country's largest city and administrative centre, but has during the last two centuries lost that status to Helsinki. As a remnant of the its long history, the city hosts a number of important historical landmarks, such as the Turku Castle and the Cathedral of Turku.
Due to the city's location, the sea is also an important part of the its history and present. Today the Port of Turku is possibly the most important seaport in the whole of Finland.
Selected picture
Photo credit: Johannes Jansson/norden.org
Prime Minister of Finland Matti Vanhanen
Did you know...
- ...that the prototypes for the WW II German U-boat fleet (Type II pictured) were designed by a Dutch company and built in Finland at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard?
- ...that while repelling Soviet advances across the frozen Lake Suvanto, Finland managed to capture 12 anti-tank guns, 140 machine guns, 200 light machine guns and 1500 rifles in the Battle of Kelja in 1939?
- ...that Major Carl Mothander, the leader of Swedish volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence, later wrote books on Estonian politics that were banned in Finland?
- ...that the Korpela movement was a short-lived cult during the 1930s in Northern Sweden and Finland whose controversial sexual rituals eventually led to the arrest of 60 followers?
- ...that in 1745, Daniel Juslenius, a Finnish Fennoman, finished the first formal Finnish dictionary?
Selected biography
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born 23 June 1937) is a former President of Finland (1994–2000), 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work.
Ahtisaari was a UN Special Envoy at the Kosovo status process negotiations, aimed at resolving a long-running dispute in Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In October 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". The Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving many conflicts in Namibia, Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq, among other areas.
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Selected panorama
Panoramic photo shot of Jyväskylä, Finland.
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