4 - Turku
STORY OF TURKU Turku, or Åbo in Swedish, is the city where I spend one year for my study. The city lost its status as capital in 1812 to Helsinki after two and a half centuries of hegemony over the Duchy of Finland. Tsar Alexander I, master of the country after Russia's victory over Sweden in 1809, considered the city much too close to Stockholm. Helsinki therefore emerged as the new administrative and political centre. Nicknamed "Finland's little Paris", the city is built on seven hills linked by wide avenues and is also considered the culinary capital of the country. With 187,637 inhabitants in 2017, Turku is the fifth largest city in the country. Active, culturally dynamic (it was the European Capital of Culture in 2011!) and very student oriented (about 1/5 of the population), Turku is still very much oriented towards Sweden. The cathedral (Tuomiokirkko) and Turku castle (Turunlinna) in particular both date from the 13th century. The very orthogonal aspect of