Turku

Turku ; Swedish: Åbo [ˈǒːbʊ] , Finland Swedish: [ˈoːbu] ; Latin: Aboa; Russian: Турку, formerly Або) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper and the former Turku and Pori Province . The region was originally called Suomi , which later became the name for the whole country. As of 30 September 2018, the population of Turku was 191,499 making it the sixth largest city in Finland after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa and Oulu. There were 330,192 inhabitants living in the Turku sub-region, ranking it as the third largest urban area in Finland after the Greater Helsinki area and Tampere sub-region. The city is officially bilingual as 5.2 percent of its population identify Swedish as a mother-tongue.
It is unknown when Turku gained city rights. The Pope first mentioned the town Aboa in his Bulla in 1229 and the year is now used as the foundation year of the city. As the oldest town in the country, Turku was the most important city in Finland, a status it retained for hundreds of years throughout the centuries under the rule of the Kingdom of Sweden. After the Finnish war, Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire under the direct rule of the Czar and the capital of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland was moved to Helsinki .

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