Historic Cities · Finland
Turku through the ages
Turku is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately 210,000, while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 320,000.
Turku in 1500
Medieval Åbo
Åbo in 1500 is the small but vital episcopal and mercantile town at the mouth of the Aura, with bishop and castle facing one another across the river. This walk follows the river from the seaward approach, along the timber quays and crooked lanes, past the cathedral hill, the Dominican convent and the Great Market, finishing at the castle keep above the archipelago.
The skyline is a compact pairing of a squat grey stone keep at the river mouth and the high mass of the cathedral on its rise; between them a ribbon of dark water shows timber quays and low wooden houses with tarred planks or thatch. Streets are narrow and crooked, punctuated by cabbage yards, friary courts and the occasional stone merchant house; Hanseatic cogs lie at the quays, ropes and barrels staining the quay timbers.
The route: 16 streets, squares and views
Archipelago Approach → Castle Quay → Crown's Quay → Penny Bridge (Pennisilta) → Stortorget and Rådhuset → Fish Quay → Cabbage Yards and Lanes → St Olaf's Dominican Convent → Tuomiokirkko Hill → Bishops' Hill and Tombs → …
Step inside, 9 interiors
Castle Great Hall · Riverside Warehouse · Town Hall Great Chamber · Convent Refectory · Brick-vaulted Nave · Bishops' Crypt and Tombs · Merchant's Stone Cellar · Bathhouse Washing Hall · Keep's Upper Chamber
Planned from the Wikipedia record: History of Turku.
Turku in 1825
Before the Great Fire
Two years before the great fire that would destroy much of the town, Åbo is the largest wooden city in the North and still the Grand Duchy’s principal port and academy town. This walk moves from the river mouth through the harbour quays, market squares and narrow timber streets up to the observatory on Vartiovuori, showing cathedral, Academy and everyday burgher life in 1825.
In 1825 Åbo is a low, wooden town stitched along the River Aura: a tall cathedral spire above a dense field of timber gables, ochre and red-painted riverside storehouses, long low burgher houses with walled apple yards, and narrow lanes paved with stone or packed earth. Roofs are shingle, turf or birch-bark; bridges and quays throng with sailing ships bound for Stockholm, tar-smelling yards and men in tailcoats, caps and coarse working dress.
The route: 16 streets, squares and views
Ruissalo shore → Åbo harbour → Aurajokiranta warehouses → Pennisilta bridge → Great Square → Old Town Hall → Puutori → Uudenmaankatu → Academy House → Cathedral precinct → …
Step inside, 7 interiors
Tar and Salt Warehouse · Bridge Coffee Room · Council Chamber · Merchant's Empire Parlour · Academy Ceremonial Hall · Cathedral Organ Loft · Observatory Meeting Chamber
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Great Fire of Turku.
From the archive
Turku on paper: the old town as it was mapped.
A period plan or bird's-eye view of the old town, drawn between 1500 and 1850 — the streets this page's reconstructions walk. Public domain, with its source named.
Charta öfver Åbo stad och Slott med Slottsfältet (Town plan of Åbo / Turku)
Shows Åbo Slott (Turku Castle), the Aura River, the street grid and building blocks, named church sites and the castle field, with the area later affected by the 1827 fire indicated.
1808 · Maanmittaushallitus. · Wikimedia Commons
CC BY 4.0 (plate dated 1808)
Castles of Turku
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