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Places in Finland (the s.c.nordic FAQ)
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The home pages for the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.nordic
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Places in Finland

 



Subject: 4.5 

Main tourist attractions

 

4.5.1 Helsinki

Helsinki (Swedish: Helsingfors) is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the southern coast of the country on the Gulf of Finland and occupies the tip of a small peninsula. The "towns" of Vantaa and Espoo are effectively suburbs of Helsinki, and together with Kaunianen, form the metropolitan where ca. 1 million people or nearly 20% if Finland's population live.

The city is protected from the sea by a fringe of islands, so that its harbor is almost landlocked. It is underlain by hard rock, which shows in rounded masses, smothered and polished by ice sheets. Hollows in this surface are occupied by lakes or the sea, although some have been filled with urban waste to create new land. Summers in Helsinki are rather mild, with an average temperature of 18C in July; winters are pretty long and cold, January temperatures averaging -6°C. A belt of sea ice forms close to the coast during the winter months,but a passage is usually kept open by icebreakers.

Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustav Vasa to compete with the Hansaetic city of Tallinn in Estonia, some 50km south across the Gulf of Finland, and merchants from several smaller towns were ordered by force to move to Helsinki. It didn't start out well, however; many of the merchants moved back to their own towns, the place of the town had to be moved a couple of times to more suitable locations, fires and war destroyed the town several times, and plague killed most of the ihabitants. For over two hundred years, Helsinki was little more than a fishing village, but things started to improve when the construction of the huge fortress of Sveaborg started in 1748 on the islands just outside Helsinki and brought tens of thousands of soldiers, builders, officers, etc. to Helsinki.

In 1809 Sveaborg (the modern Finnish name is Suomenlinna) surrendered almost without a shot to a Russian army that was much smaller than the Swedish-Finnish garrison, and Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. Helsinki was made capital in 1812, the university (founded 1640) was moved there from Turku in 1827, and the modern growth of the city started. The war had destroyed much of the old Helsinki, and the central city was rebuilt according to the plans of the German-born architect C.L.Engel in grand imperial scale to show the power of the Russian Empire. The city was bombed during the World War II, but not as badly as it might have because of the ingenious air raid defense (for example, a fake Helsinki was built next to the real one and set on fire to fool the Russian bombers).

The Helsinki accords was the "declaration of policy intent" signed in Helsinki in 1975, by the United States, Canada, the USSR, and 32 European countries at the end of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1973-75). The accords declared inviolable the frontiers of all the signatory nations, provided for scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges, and pledged the signatories to respect human rights, including "freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief."

The most important sights in Helsinki include the following:

For more information on Helsinki, you may wish to check these URLs:
A clicable map of Helsinki WWW-resources:
<http://www.funet.fi/resources/maps/stadi/>
Official Helsinki city information:
<http://www.hel.fi/>
 

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4.5.2 Turku, the old capital

Turku (Swedish: Åbo) is a port city in southwestern Finland at the mouth of the river Aura, about 160 km west of Helsinki. It has several important libraries, museums, and theaters. The Swedish University of Åbo (Åbo Akademi, 1917) and the University of Turku (1920) serve, respectively, the Swedish and Finnish populations of this bilingual city.

Turku/Åbo is Finland's oldest city, founded sometime in the early 13th century, but not very many old buildings remain because of tens of disastrous fires, the worst one being that of 1827 which destroyed the city almost completely. Most of the buildings are, therefore, fairly new, with a couple of old monuments remaining. Before the Russian takeover in 1809, Turku was Finland's largest city and served as its capital. It was rather heavily damaged during also during the WWII.

The city is divided by the river Aura, on the bank of which rises the Turku Cathedral, the most important medieval cathedral in Finland and a national sanctuary. It was started in 1230, and it's present shape (except for the cupola and the roof, which were built after the 1827 fire) dates from late middle ages. In the cathedral are buried e.g the wife of Erik XIV, Queen Karin Månsdotter (Kaarina Maununtytär) and some of the most famous of Gustav II Adolf's military leaders from the Thirty Years' War (the Finnish marshalls Evert Horn and Åke Tott, the general of the Hakkapeliitta cavalry Torsten Stålhandske and the Scottish colonel Samuel Cockburn). There's also a museum in one of the galleries.

The other major medieval monument in Turku is the castle, started in the 1310's. The castle acted as the main castle of Finland in the middle ages and renaissance and experienced it's best days in the 16th century when the duke of Finland, Johan, held his court there together with the Polish-born princess Katarina Jagellonica whom he married in 1562. Later, in 1568, Johan imprisoned his brother, the mad renaissance king Erik XIV, and he was held prisoner in Turku castle. It's an impressive construction, but perhaps not exceptionally romantic. In the river Aura, there are two 19th century sailingships that act as museums, the Suomen Joutsen and Sigyn. The Cloister Hill (Luostarinmäki) has an attractive collection of simple wooden merchants houses that were spared from the fire of 1827.

For more information on Turku: <http://www.tku.fi/>

 

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4.5.3 Tampere, the third largest city of Finland

<from: Kari Yli-Kuha >

Tampere (in Swedish Tammerfors) lies about 160 km northwest of Helsinki. A major manufacturing hub and the textile center of Finland, Tampere also produces metals, heavy machinery, pulp, and paper, etc. The heavy concentration of industry has prompted some to call it Finland's Manchester (the center, with several rather attractive old factory buildings, looks pretty industrial, too).

Just currently some old factories, such as Finlayson and Tampella, and their wide factory areas in the centre of the city are being renovated and partly rebuilt, but still in an attempt to maintain the architectural general appearance.

Tampere was founded in 1779 and is the largest inland city in Scandinavia. The location between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and the rapids (Tammerkoski) joining the lakes gave birth to the industry in the city. The cathedral by Lars Sonck is a masterpiece of Finnish national-romantic Art Nouveau; it's frescoes by the symbolist painter Hugo Simberg are especially fascinating. Lake tours, "Hopealinja" (Silver Line) in Pyhäjärvi and "Runoilijan tie" (Poet's Way) in Näsijärvi, are popular in the summer. A gravel ridge, Pispalan harju, and the settlement there is also a major tourist attraction. Tampere has two theatres (TT and TTT) and a summer theatre with a revolving auditorium. The Särkänniemi amusement park is very popular in the summer. The new Tampere Hall is currently the second most popular place in Finland (after Finlandia House in Helsinki) for international congresses, large special events and exhibitions.

One of the gastronomic delicacies typical for Tampere is black sausage ("mustamakkara") which is made of blood, though not nearly all regard it as a delicacy.

Other tips:

For more information on Tampere:  

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4.5.4 Jyväskylä

<from: Jarmo Ryyti>

Jyväskylä was where Alvar Aalto began his career as an architect; from 1920's up until our days, dozens of buildings designed by him have been built in and around Jyvaskyla, thus making the city famous for its architecture.

Jyväskylä in the area of Finnish language culture it has a remarkable succession of firsts: the first Finnish-language lyceum, the first school for the girls, the first teachers' training college (the seminary) the first national song and instrument festivals, the first society for the advancement of public education, the first summer >http://www.funet.fi/resources/maps/tampere/>

  • Official Tampere city information:
    <http://www.tampere.fi/>
  • Maps of Tampere:
    <http://www.uta.fi/maps/sisluettelo.html>
  •  

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    4.5.4 Jyväskylä

    <from: Jarmo Ryyti>

    Jyväskylä was where Alvar Aalto began his career as an architect; from 1920's up until our days, dozens of buildings designed by him have been built in and around Jyvaskyla, thus making the city famous for its architecture.

    Jyväskylä in the area of Finnish language culture it has a remarkable succession of firsts: the first Finnish-language lyceum, the first school for the girls, the first teachers' training college (the seminary) the first national song and instrument festivals, the first society for the advancement of public education, the first summer>