Turku Times 1/2023

SOUVENIRS

FROM TURKU. TURKU-AIHEISET TUOTTEET.

TUE-FRI, TI-PE 11-17 SAT-LA 11-15

Vanha Suurtori 3, Brinkkalan talo turkuseura.fi/foripuoti

Craft Love in Turku old town

Vanha Suurtori 3 Turku @taitovarsinaissuomi

ISSN 2342-2823 (print)

ISSN

Publisher Teemu Jaakonkoski

Sales manager Raimo Kurki raimo.kurki@aikalehdet.fi Tel. +358 45 656 7216

Sales Pirkko Puurunen

Cover photos Turku

Photo:

Photo: Terri Vahtera / Visit Turku Vähätori.

Photo: Jemina Sormunen / Visit Turku Kupittaa park.

Photo: Terri Vahtera / Visit Turku Leena Parkkinen.

Photo: Jonne Räsänen / Otava

Intian Helmi brings you the finest Indian cuisine With over 15 years of experience come and indulge in our authentic Indian dishes. Freshly prepared food using traditional techniques, a clay oven to lock in those flavours and the blends of different sauces that are famous all around the world and can be experienced right here.

Brahenkatu 14, 20100, Turku +358 41 318 6460

The (b)oldest city in Finland!

I am pleased to welcome you to Turku – the oldest and boldest city in Finland.

A historic, yet innovative city

History is ever present in Turku. Yet new things are built in our city all the time. Our new, great Market Square is a good example of this. In addition to the market trade and local and fresh products, it also provides a relaxed venue for events and meetings in the heart of the city.

As a city, Turku is also an internationally recognised pioneer in climate matters. Our ambitious goal is to be a carbon-positive city in 2029 when our city will celebrate its 800th anniversary. We will also enhance biodiversity and promote the circular economy with the aim of being a resource-wise and waste-free city by 2040.

Turku – a city of students and excellence

With a total of six universities and universities of applied sciences and their about 40,000 students, our city is guaranteed to be brimming with energy, intelligence, creativity and the ability to renew. All our universities are international. The unique status of Åbo Akademi, the only Swedish-speaking university in Finland, is a significant part of the identity of our bilingual city.

The success of Turku is also guaranteed by the long-term, regional cooperation between higher education institutions, companies and the city. This cooperation provides a strong starting point for business and innovation. We are an internationally renowned centre of expertise in fields such as bioeconomy, circular economy, pharmaceutical development and the maritime industry. As an international city of science and culture, we often serve as the stage for international congresses and encounters of experts in different fields.

Culture for all senses

Those interested in culture can visit plenty of interesting events in our city, such as concerts, theatre, fairs, art exhibitions and festivals all year round. We call our riverbank the Cultural Riverside because you

can find all forms of culture along the river. The city is an experience centre throughout the year.

Turku is also known for its high-quality and versatile food and café culture. A lunch made with local producers’ fresh ingredients or a Michelin-level dinner – our city has much to offer! The milieus in our eating and drinking places are also interesting – in Turku, you can eat on a riverboat, in a former prison or admire the city from a bird's-eye view from one of the city's many roof terraces. You should also visit a traditional market hall to taste local delicacies and specialities, at least the piispanmunkki doughnut!

A city where nature is always present

River Aurajoki is the heart and soul of Turku. That is why you can get to know Turku easily by walking or cycling along the riverbank. The path from the Cathedral to Turku Castle is teeming with history and life. Along the river, you can find beautiful landscapes, museums and art, as well as cosy and high-quality cafés and restaurants where you take a break from walking.

The sea and nature are also an integral part of Turku. You could say that this is the capital city of the world’s most beautiful archipelago. You can sense this maritime atmosphere already a few kilometres away from the city centre on Ruissalo Island. You can easily get to the island by Föli’s citybike, bus and in the summertime also by Föli’s waterbus.

As a city, Turku is an attractive combination of history, modern urban culture and maritime experiences. For me, however, Turku is above all a matter of heart. I hope it conquers your heart during your visit and makes you come back to our city again and again.

Minna Arve mAyor of turku

EXPERIENCE UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE, CULTURAL HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE

Visit Turku and Kaarina Churches

Our roadside churches cover a timeline from the year 1300 to the 20th century. Wherever you go, you will have more than 700 years of prayer, faith and trust in God for company.

➊ Turku Cathedral

Tuomiokirkontori 1, Turku

Open daily 9–18 (1 Jun–31 Aug guide tour on Wednesdays at 2 pm)

Summer Café Cathedral Museum 2/1 €

➋ St Mary’s Church

Maunu Tavastin katu 2, Turku

Mon–Fri 12 noon–6 pm (29 May – 11 Aug, except 23 Jun) Guide available.

➌ St Michael’s church

Puistokatu 16, Turku

Mon–Fri 11 am–6 pm

Sat–Sun 11 am–2 pm (5 Jun – 6 Aug, except 23 Jun)

Guides and summer café (5 Jun – 4 Aug)

(Opening hours until 4 Jun and after 9 Aug:

Wed–Fri 11 am – 5 pm

Sat–Sun 11 am – 2 pm)

➍ Martin’s Church

Huovinkatu, Turku

Mon–Fri 12 noon–5 pm (12 Jun–11 Aug, except 23 Jun) Guide available.

➎ St Catherine’s Church

Kirkkotie 46, Turku

Mon–Fri 12 noon–5 pm (5 Jun–4 Aug, except 23 Jun) Guide available.

➏ Kuusisto Church

Linnanrauniontie 157, Kaarina

Sun–Fri 11 am–4 pm (26 Jun–13 Aug) Guide available.

➐ Piikkiö Church

Hadvalantie 5, Piikkiö (Kaarina)

Mon–Thu 12 noon–6 pm (26 Jun–27 Jul) Guide available.

The right way to take a sauna

If you spend more than a few days in Finland, odds are you’ll come across a sauna. You’ll find one in almost every house, summer cottage, hotel, and apartment building, and of course at swimming pools and other well-equipped swimming spots.

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen

The sauna is one of the world’s finest inventions, but the concept can be strange at first if you aren’t used to it, and there are many unspoken conventions that apply. Here’s a short guide to sauna etiquette.

Nudity. Yes, people are naked in Finnish saunas, though usually women and men go to sauna separately. There are exceptions, however, and depending on the situation, swimsuits may also be worn – for example, in mixed-gender saunas at ice-hole swimming spots. As a general rule, however, you go to sauna naked, though it’s not as if it’s written into the Finnish constitution. So you won’t wind up in jail if you decide to wear a bathing suit or wrap yourself in a towel. However you go, the most important thing is to enjoy it.

Most swimming halls explicitly forbid swimsuits in the saunas, but if you use a pefletti, it’s hard to see what harm a swimsuit would do. A pefletti is a disposable, single-use bench cover. They are generally available at public saunas for you to use.

Whisking. In the summertime, in particular, it’s traditional to make sauna whisks out of birch branches. The branches are tied into a beautiful bundle. The whisk is kind of like a sponge, or perhaps a medieval torture device, depending on your point of view. The idea is that you use it to beat yourself on different parts of your body – or, perhaps, your benchmate’s back (it’s a good idea to ask permission first). The whisk is softened by soaking it in water, so it not only gets your skin clean, but it makes the sauna smell nice too.

Throwing wAter. In a Finnish sauna, water is thrown on the hot stones of the sauna stove, or heater in case it’s an electric one. The resulting steam momentarily makes the sauna very hot. The hotter, the better. However, if you aren’t alone in the sauna, it’s good to ask the others how much steam they are comfortable with. If the heat is too much for you, you can move to a lower bench. Finnish men are unlikely to do so, however, because it would be a sign of weakness. That kind of attitude is unfortunate and old-fashioned and has even led to deaths.

If the bucket of water is empty and you are about to leave the sauna, it’s polite to fill the bucket and return it to its place.

Cooling off. After taking a sauna – or between turns in the sauna – it’s good to cool oneself off from time to time. So step outside for a moment to cool off. During the winter, you can jump into a snowbank and make snow angels or take a dip in an ice hole – a large opening made in a frozen lake or sea, sometimes large enough to swim in. It’s nicer in the summer, though, when there’s no option to do either of those stupid things, and you can settle for something like a cold drink.

SociAlizing. In Finland, going to sauna is often compared to going to church, meaning that taking a sauna is practically a sacred event, during which people are happy to sit quietly. Or at least to show restraint while chatting. On the other hand, Finns may take a sauna as an opportunity to talk, and even to discuss big, important topics. In the sauna, when everyone is naked, even titles and status are left in the dressing room.

S A unA night. It’s a very Finnish tradition: going to sauna somewhere with a group of friends. It often includes having dinner and some drinks. In other words, for Finns, taking a sauna is both intimate and social. While Finns don’t generally talk more than necessary, if you’re naked in the sauna, talking is okay, even with strangers. s

From holes in the ground to apartment buildings

The sauna is not a Finnish invention, but it tells you something about Finns’ sauna madness that there are an estimated 3 million saunas here, in a country of only 5.5 million people. Though perhaps it’s not surprising: up in the northern latitudes, it’s quite a luxury to have a warm place where you can bathe.

The earliest known Finnish saunas are earth pit saunas from the Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago. However, these saunas probably existed already 10,000 years ago. The idea was simple: stones were heated in a pit, and when they were hot enough, a kind of tent was spread over the pit and a sauna could be taken. Starting in the 6th century, dedicated buildings were constructed for saunas, usually from logs.

Nowadays, there are many types of saunas. The rarest, but perhaps the most valued and atmospheric, is the smoke sauna. A smoke sauna has no chimney at all. Instead, after the big pile of stones has been heated, the smoke is aired out of the sauna. Heating up a smoke sauna takes time and is somewhat dangerous – smoke saunas have burned down often enough. However, the steam in a smoke sauna is uniquely soft, not to mention that smoke saunas are usually beautiful. A small downside is that you usually come out of a smoke sauna a bit dirtier than when you went in, due to all the soot on the walls.

Traditional wood-burning sauna stoves are common, especially in older detached single-family houses: the steam in these saunas is also good and soft, and they can be heated as hot as you like.

Nowadays electric saunas are the most common and easiest to use. They don’t require a chimney and can fit into small spaces, making them suitable for apartment buildings, for example. They’re also effortless, as all you have to do is switch them on. On the other hand, they use a lot of electricity and the steam generally feels quite dry. And they’re not at all as atmospheric as a wood-burning sauna.

Public saunas can be found in all the big cities, so go ahead and give it a try!

IN FINLAND, GOING TO SAUNA IS OFTEN COMPARED TO GOING TO CHURCH, MEANING THAT TAKING A SAUNA IS PRACTICALLY A SACRED EVENT,

Some bathhouses on the island of Ruissalo may even have a small sauna.

A SMALL DOWNSIDE IS THAT YOU USUALLY COME OUT OF A SMOKE SAUNA A BIT DIRTIER THAN WHEN YOU WENT IN.

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen

Moomin philosophy for young and old

Tove Jansson’s first Moomin book was published 77 years ago. It hasn’t aged a bit.

Tove – yes, she is Tove to Finns, known by her first name because she’s familiar to everyone and easily approachable, like the Moomins – loved yellow roses. Though actually, she loved everything beautiful and pleasurable: dancing, parties, flowers, laughing. And that side of her personality also shines through the Moomins, who have slowly become loved all around the world. It remains a great injustice that Tove never received the Nobel Prize in literature.

But Tove’s lightheartedness and zest for life are not the whole picture. Underlying her joy in everyday life were weighty and important values that can also be found in her Moomin books, values like courage, love, and freedom.

Or friendship, nature, and tolerance, which are also supporting pillars of the Moominverse.

Equal but different

Though the Moomins are timeless, of course, similarities can nonetheless be found between the present and 77 years ago.

Tove wrote the book The Moomins and the Great Flood in 1939, but it was published only after the war, in 1945. As at the time of the book’s writing, we are now again in a situation where freedom is not self-evident. Years of coronavirus and now the war in Europe have made people remember what is ultimately most important: their friends and loved ones.

The Moomin books are also current in that different personalities and views of life are all given a voice, but everyone is united by the values of equality and diversity. Everyone is always welcome at the Moominhouse, and its door is never locked, even at night, as the theme song from the Finnish-language version of the animated series says.

The characters of Moominvalley are allowed to be exactly who they are, different and unique. Sniff is greedy but fearful. Moominpappa is the head of the family, but rather irresponsible. Moominmamma takes care of everyone, to the point of exhaustion. Snufkin is a good friend, but despite that, he always leaves. And so on. The inhabitants of Moominvalley have many sides, just like humans. They also evolve.

Not bad at all

The characters’ multidimensionality is also their charm. They have annoying features, but also lovable ones. Children may see one side of the Moomin characters, but adults see something else, which is probably one reason for their popularity – everyone finds something in them. For Finns, there’s also an element of nostalgia: since most Finns have read the books as children, the Moomins unite them.

The Moomins are universal and deeply human. One distinctive feature of the Moomins is their positivity. There’s not a single bad character in all of Moominvalley. The Groke is undeniably scary, but at the heart of it, she’s just lonely, like many people who seem scary in real life probably are. As for Stinky... well, he tries to be a bandit, but nothing really comes of it.

Did you know?

The first drawing of a Moomin was created in the early 1930s on the wall of the outhouse at the Janssons’ summer cottage. Tove named it Snork. The character later grew into Moomintroll, changing a little along the way. He reached his chubbiest form in 1954. At that time, Finland was starting to recover from the war, and perhaps there were plenty of treats to be had in Moominvalley too!

Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was an artist, writer, caricaturist, and cartoonist who is best known as the creator of the Moomin characters. Thirteen beloved Moomin books were published, and they have been translated into more than 50 languages. Tove Jansson is Finland’s most translated author.

The significance of the sea

Everyone recognizes the tall blue Moominhouse, but few know it was inspired by a real-life building, the now-demolished Glosholm Lighthouse near Porvoo. Tove and her partner, Tuulikki Pietilä , had their summer place near Porvoo, on a barren cliff without any comforts – well, hardly any: the story goes that Tove would order gin from the local grocery store on her radiotelephone when she needed it – it could be arranged, even though grocery stores in Finland aren’t allowed to sell gin, at least not at the time.

The sea was an important element for Tove, both in real life and in the Moomin books: it’s a symbol of freedom and a place for swimming and sailing, but also something that no one can control.

The sea is also apparent in the work of artists Tove was inspired by. In illustration, she admired Swedish artists like John Bauer and Elsa Beskow, but she also absorbed influences from other artists as well, such as the famous seascape painters J. M. W. Turner, from England, and Hokusai, from Japan.

Tove considered herself first and foremost a painter, and she was an excellent artist. But she will always be remembered above all for the Moomins. They are so beloved that since 2020, the Finnish flag is flown in Tove’s honor on August 9, her birthday. s

Tove’s Moomin book one-liners are unparalleled:

“If you’re not afraid, how can you really be brave?”

—Moominpappa

“All nice things are good for you.”

—Moominmamma

“All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured.”

—Too-Ticky

MOOMINWORLD

Kaivokatu 5, 21101 Naantali

www.moominworld.fi

See on map (page 18)

Tove Jansson working at her studio.

© moomin chArActers™

Turku Castle

The stately Turku Castle has guarded the mouth of the Aura River since the late 13th century. The tall granite walls conceal unique moments from history within them. Over the course of its history, the castle has been defended and besieged, its governors changed and during Duke John’s era, the castle became a stage for court life. The medieval rooms of the keep and the ballrooms built by Duke John allow visitors to experience the splendour and bleakness of times past.

Guided Tours turku.fi/en/turkucastle

Opening Hours Tue–Sun 10am–6pm, 5 June–3 Sep Mon–Sun 10am–6pm

Linnankatu 80, tel. +358 2262 0300, turunlinna@turku.fi

Pharmacy Museum and the Qwensel House

The Qwensel House is the oldest remaining wooden building in Turku, featuring a bourgeois home from the 18th century and a pharmacy from the 19th century under one roof.

Qwensel House, you can explore the life of the family of the most famous resident of the house, Joseph Pipping, the father of Finnish surgery. The interior is decorated in the Rococo and Gustavian styles of the late 18th century.

Museum’s pharmacy shop houses the oldest remaining pharmacy interior in Finland, dating back to 1858.

Guided Tours turku.fi/en/pharmacymuseum

Opening Hours Tue–Sun 10am–6pm, 5 June–3 Sep Mon–Sun 10am–6pm

Läntinen Rantakatu 13b, tel. +358 2262 0280, luostarinmaki@turku.fi

WAM Turku City Art Museum

Luostarinmäki

The Luostarinmäki museum block is the only complete wooden building area that survived the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. The more than 200 year old buildings stand where they originally did, and the alleys, yards, and homes of the block form an unique environment in the middle of the city.

Guided Tours turku.fi/en/luostarinmaki

Opening Hours 2 May–4 June Tue–Sun 10am–6pm, 5 June–3 Sep Mon–Sun 10am–6pm, 4–30 Sep Tue–Sun 10am–6pm Vartiovuorenkatu 2, tel. +358 2262 0350, luostarinmaki@turku.fi

Hey buddies! 9 June–17 Sep

The works of Finnish contemporary sculptors take over the museum’s main space in an exhibition where surprising encounters are created between the evocative sculptures and the audience.

Lux et Umbra from 6 Oct

The artworks in the engaging Lux et Umbra exhibition in autumn are made primarily from light and shadows. The exhibition includes interesting and surprising works from Finnish contemporary artists and groups.

Opening Hours

Tue–Sun 10am–6pm

Itäinen Rantakatu 38, tel. +358 2262 0850, wam@turku.fi, turku.fi/en/wam

The Biological Museum

Located in a beautiful Art Nouveau building dating back to 1907, the Biological Museum presents Finnish flora and fauna all the way from the Turku archipelago to the fells of Lapland. You can take a peek at the outer archi-pelago in spring, or wonder at the diversity of species in the Ruissalo grove, for example.

Exhibition Collections from home and faraway

The exhibition showcases treasures from the collection of natural sciences, donated by private collectors, from exotic butterflies to Finnish school herbaria and from magnificent phasmids to over a century old egg and mineral collections.

Opening Hours Tue–Sun 9am–5pm Neitsytpolku 1, tel. tel. +358 2262 0340, biologinenmuseo@turku.fi, turku.fi/en/biologicalmuseum

Turku City Museums | turku.fi/en/museum

Tiia Matikainen, Mörri, 2021.

Finland’s largest collection of

See and feel real ships, exhibits and stories!

From historic tall ships to intricate scale models

From Children’s Maritime Museum to rugged warships

The museum ships and exhibitions are open daily from June 5th to August 20th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. www.forum-marinum.fi #forummarinum

Summer follies

Sitting on anthills, throwing boots, competitive sauna bathing, carrying your wife through an obstacle course - would you call these things sports? According to Finns, they are.

Written by Matti MäkeLä transLated by Christina

The best place to start telling the story of Finland’s strange summer sports is the same as for any other story about Finnishness: the sauna. In 2010, the World Sauna Championships were organized for the twelfth and final time. After six minutes, the competition was stopped and the organizers removed the disoriented finalists, Russia’s Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy and

Finland’s Timo Kaukonen, from the sauna. Both were suffering severe burns, and Ladyzhenskiy died at the scene despite efforts to resuscitate him. Kaukonen suffered burns over 70 percent of his body and was in a coma for two months but survived. Today, Kaukonen is back to sauna bathing.

Jari “Lyde” Lyytikäinen’s attempt to set a world record for standing in a swamp nearly ended as tragically. Lyytikäinen, who calls himself a life artist,

saarinen

The boot throwing World Championships 2005 were held in Kokemaki, Western Finland. In picture Swedish Jarmo Kieleväinen (3rd) in his throw.

was caught off guard by the powerful suction of a bog hole, and only the quick reaction of his assistants saved him. “When I realized what sort of bog hole it was, I thought I was done for,” Lyytikäinen said later in a TV interview on MTV3.

Lyytikäinen has had more success with sitting on an anthill and in a freezer – both sports of their own. The world record for the former stands at a respectable five hours. “These are one-time deals. Once you’ve done it, you don’t really want to do it again. You’re competing with yourself there. The result is the reward,” Lyytikäinen said.

Both Lyytikäinen and Kaukonen represent traditional Finnish unyielding heroism. They’re like the beloved character Lieutenant Koskela from the classic Finnish war novel The Unknown Soldier, who is said to “eat iron and shit chains.”

An even closer point of comparison could be the world-famous Finnish stunt group the Dudesons. This is how the audience was warned about the group’s activities in the opening credits of the TV series Dudesons in America: “Most of the stunts in the series are dangerous and stupid. The Dudesons are professionals and jerks. Don't try to imitate anything you see on the show.”

MAny other Finnish summer sports don’t dive as deep into the dark heart of toxic masculinity – they’re simply weird. The most famous around the world is probably wife-carrying. World championships in the sport have been held annually in Sonkajärvi since 1992, though they were cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic. The idea of the sport is to carry a woman who weighs at least 49 kilograms through a 253.5-meter obstacle course as quickly as possible.

At best, representatives from 15 different countries have participated in the championship, and wife-carrying differs from sports like boot-throwing or sitting on an anthill in that it’s not a given that the winner will be a Finn. The two most recent victories have gone to Lithuania, and the world record in the sport is held by Estonians. It speaks to the wide interest in the sport that in 2005, basketball superstar Dennis Rodman attended the championships to try it out. He didn’t participate in the actual competition, however, citing health problems.

Although many Finnish summer sports seem as if they were invented while solidly drunk, to freely quote Shakespeare, “there’s always a method in Finnish madness.” Considering the weirdness of the competitions, their rules are surprisingly precise. For example,

Why do PeoPle participate in these strange sports? The most cynical explanation is that since Finns are no longer successful in their old favorite sport, athletics, they’ve been forced to come up with new sports that other countries don’t want to or can’t be bothered to participate in. Perhaps it can be taken as evidence of this that boot-throwing uses the same runway as the javelin, whose globalization has drastically reduced Finland’s chances of success (in the past, the only people who seriously trained in javelin were the Finns and one Norwegian).

Another possible explanation is that it’s simply so boring in the Finnish countryside that people have to come up with something to do. This theory is supported by the fact that the sports described here are specifically rural amusements: tourists in Finland’s largest cities don’t need to dodge flying boots or fear bumping into someone sitting pantless on an anthill in the park.

The reasons are of course also related to economics and image. The competitions are held in small towns, and without the Wife Carrying World Championships, Sonkajärvi (population 3,768) couldn’t dream of holding a summer event that would attract over 3,000 spectators or be featured as a humorous kicker story on TV news and sports programs abroad. The visibility record for Finnish summer sports was probably achieved in 2004, when the Japanese television company Nippon Network made a documentary about the World Sauna Championships, which was seen by a whopping 40 million viewers in Japan alone.

A third explanation is based on Finns’ unique national character, the core of which is the world-famous Finnish sisu (sitting on an anthill is certainly not very hygge). Here’s how journalist Heini Kilpamäki describes it in her book Suomalaisen tyhmyyden ylistys (In praise of Finnish stupidity): “Even today, Finns are portrayed as wild and raw – and what could be better for the image and brand factories? Being wild seems rugged in an otherwise bland world. A slight feeling of danger has always been intriguing.”

Kilpamäki describes stupidity as an unconventional energy that results in new ideas and breaks free from familiar patterns: “Stupidity steps off the trail to find new paths. As the ancient philosopher Heraclitus said, madness is the source of wisdom.” s

Although many Finnish summer sports seem as if they were invented

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Lohja – City of experiences

For over 700 years, we have called this place home. Our long history has taught us to take a deep breath, slow down, and appreciate the beauty of our city, where we have the space to live close to nature and pursue our passions. And if you happen to work in the capital region, you can still enjoy the best of both worlds, with easy access to the hustle and bustle of the big city just a stone’s throw away.

Experience the best of both worlds in Lohja. Located just a stone’s throw from the capital, yet far away from the noise and stress, Lohja offers a unique blend of urban excitement and natural beauty. Here, you can have it all - indulge in the vibrant cultural scene while staying firmly grounded in the great outdoors. No need to choose between the city and the countryside - in Lohja, you can have the best of both.

Open the window to thousand lakes! As an urban gateway to Finland, the land of a thousand lakes, we’re proud to boast 200 of them right next door to our cafes, restaurants, museums, theaters, and concert venues. But that’s not all - just a few steps down, you’ll find the Tytyri Mine Experience, a hundred meters deep and bursting with a thousand stories waiting to be uncovered. Come explore the endless possibilities of Lohja - where urban sophistication and natural wonder meet.

www.visitlohja.fi/en

World’s tallest building: Burj Khalifa (830 m) foli.fi

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Turku timeline

1229

The Pope orders the bishopric to be moved from Nousiainen to the new city of Turku. By the river Aura in Koroinen, there is a white memorial cross standing in the place where the Bishop’s little castle once was. It is a nice place to visit, as is the entire riverbank, where one can walk or go jogging.

1300

The Turku cathedral is inaugurated. It is the most beautiful cathedral in Finland. Not least because it is also the only proper cathedral in Finland.

1308

The first documented mention of the Turku Castle, although the construction probably began as early as the 1280s. Builders in Turku were in no hurry, as the castle wasn’t completed until 1588. The most magnificent Renaissance period in the history of Finland was seen in Turku castle during the reign of Catharina Jagiellon and Duke John (later king John III) 1562–1563.

1414

The first bridge over river Aura is built. It was called The Pennybridge.

1500

Turku is not quite a Hanseatic city, but almost. It is one of the major cities in Sweden and its international trade is significant.

1543

Mikael Agricola, the father of written Finnish, publishes his first book. It is also a milestone of Protestantism in Finland.

1634

The first map of Turku is published, and for a good reason, too: there were already 6,000 habitants, so the city was huge!

1640

The University of Turku is established. Nowadays, Turku is still a renowned city of higher education with more than 40,000 students studying at six universities.

Written by roope Lipasti

1642

Finlands first printing house is established in Turku. It prints books, among them the thesis Aboa Vetus et Nova by Mr Daniel Juslenius (1676–1752), in which he studies the birth of Turku. His conclusion was that the people in Turku are decendants of Jaafet, the third son of Noah.

1812

Sweden loses Finland to Russia in 1809, and in 1812 Helsinki is declared as the new capital – something that still slightly upsets people in Turku.

1827

Turku burns down and almost the whole city must be built again, which is the reason why Turku doesn’t have a medieval centre anymore.

1900

The first Christmas tree illuminated with electric lamps is erected in front of the Cathedral. The tradition became regular in the 1930s.

1917 Finland declares independence.

1922

The University of Turku is established again, since the original Academy was moved to Helsinki after the great fire in 1827. Åbo Akademi University, the only university in Finland with Swedish as official language, was founded in 1918. (Åbo is the name of Turku in Swedish.)

1939–1945

Finland is at war with Russia. Turku suffers great damage during the bombings, among other buildings the castle is partly burned.

1956, 1976, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2010. TPS, the biggest ice-hockey club in Turku, wins the Finnish championship.

1960–1980

Turku suffers from the so called “Turku sickness” – meaning that many beautiful old buildings were demolished in order to be replaced with modern blockhouses.

2011

Turku is the European Capital of Culture.

2023

Turku is the sixth largest city in Finland with 194,000 inhabitants. It also is one of the nicest cities and most popular holiday destinations in Finland, with its historical attractions and magnificent archipelago. s

Putin’s critic

Artist Kaj Stenvall ridicules and criticizes power by painting Putin every day, putting his subject in a wide variety of settings.

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen

The studio floor is littered with dozens of paintings, either drying or just otherwise complete. Most of them depict Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, but Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, former president of the United States Donald Trump, and even a few Finnish politicians make their appearances. But by and large, the paintings are of Putin. He sits in The Hague looking miserable, stares in a mirror and Hitler looks back, is hiding in a toilet bowl. And so on.

Although you might imagine otherwise, Stenvall didn’t start painting Putin after last year’s invasion of Ukraine. He actually started much earlier, the last time Putin attacked Ukraine in 2014, when the world hadn’t yet taken much notice.

“Actually, it started with the Olympics in Sochi. I watched it on TV and saw how Putin was strutting around among the athletes there. Even before that, he had appeared shirtless in public and built up his macho image, but that was when I really started paying attention to it. It was just too much. A little while later, Crimea was annexed, which was the last straw and got me to start making these. It was a concrete sign of Putin’s agenda, which was not staying inside his own country,” Stenvall explains.

A villain and a hero

The explicitly political paintings were also a counterweight to what Stenvall had been doing for the last 30 years or so. He is famous for his duck paintings, which feature humanoid ducks in all kinds of situations. Often, they are pastiches of famous paintings, with the main character replaced by a duck. Stenvall’s duck paintings have been extremely popular, which has given Stenvall the financial leeway to paint Putins – because there can’t be too many people who want one on their living room wall, can there?

“It’s hard to say. There have been a lot of inquiries, but I don’t know if it’s a question of putting them on display or an investment. In any case, I haven’t sold them. Well, I did sell two: one to a member of parliament in Berlin and the other to a member of parliament in Prague. But the idea is to keep the collection together and expand it, so that at some point I can have a bigger exhibition.”

Actually, there is also one painting in Ukraine: a year ago at midsummer, a young Ukrainian celebrity died on the front and became something of a national hero, so Stenvall made a painting of him. The painting was supposed to be sold at auction, with the money donated to Ukraine, but in the end, the painting went to Ukraine along with the Finnish foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto

“It was a show of sympathy for the Ukrainian people. I have also done paintings of Zelensky. It’s kind of nice to paint heroes, too, and not always just villains. On the whole, this is a mission, something important. And because I am able to do it, I feel that it’s also a kind of duty. At the same time, it’s a way to unload my own anxieties about the war, through critique and ridicule.”

Back to the underground

In fact, painting Putin – or other powerful people – is ironically not so terribly far from Stenvall’s duck-themed paintings. Through the ducks, Stenvall was able to explore different aspects of humanity, and a similar thing is going on with the Putins and the others, though the war soon brought its tragic addition to the mix.

Politics itself is not a new thing for Stenvall and his generation: Originally from Tampere, Stenvall was born in 1951 and started studying art in Turku in 1971. It was still the time of the underground movement, and all kinds of politicization – including of art – continued throughout the ’70s.

“The underground was one of the reasons I came to Turku. It combined different kinds of elements, including from real life, and there was always a message or a point, and that’s actually what I’ve come back to now. I’m interested in how people experience their position, the fact that they have power. I’m trying to get to the person there, deep inside. For example, the painting of Lavrov is based on a news photo in which he was criticizing the West with a Western watch and cellphone in his hand. I put him in a hoodie, so he would look like a rapper. In the painting, his face reflects sheer helplessness, the fact that he is completely lost.”

From the media to media art

According to Stenvall, the response to his Putin paintings has been largely bewildered.

“When I put the first images on Twitter in 2014, I got a few comments, but people from Finland in particular were confused and somehow afraid of the issue. Finlandization was quite strong even then. One art critic’s column ran under the headline ‘Does it make sense or not?’ quoting a song by the ’70s Finnish rock group Sleepy Sleepers. The message was that maybe I shouldn’t make paintings like these because it’s dangerous to mock the leader of a neighboring country.”

Dangerous or not, it’s clear that Stenvall is making internet art, or, more broadly, media art: Stenvall pulls material from the media, refines it, and puts it back into the media. The image that goes out is always different from when it came to him:

“The pieces themselves are quite small, so I can do them quickly. Online, it makes no difference what size the original is. The idea is to be able to comment on things practically in real time.”

Stenvall’s pace and work ethic are formidable. In the morning, he takes his kid to school – the trip serves as a kind of commute –before returning to his home studio to start painting. At that point, it’s nine o’clock. By the afternoon, the painting will be ready to be photographed and put online.

“Spontaneity is the thing, getting it done all at once. It’s three and a half hours of really intense pressure, and afterwards my head is spinning. Developing the subject matter is a big and time-consuming part because I want each painting to be different and to have a specific point. I’ve done maybe 130 or 140 of these, so quite a lot of angles have already been used.” s

See more paintings at: kajstenvall.fi

"I’M INTERESTED IN HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THEIR POSITION, THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE POWER."

Here is still room, 2022, oil on board.

Mariupol is Destroyed, 2022, oil on board. Don´t Blame Me, 2023, oil on board.

Finns aboard the Titanic

Written by tuoMas Värjö

RMS Titanic, the newest passenger ship of the White Star Line, left Southampton for its maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. When the ship set sail at 15 minutes past noon, there were 64 Finns aboard the huge liner. The voyage across the northern Atlantic Ocean would take seven days. Standing on the deck of the newly built ship, a Finnish migrant was already past the half-point of their journey from Finland to America. From here on, it would be smooth sailing in fine conditions, the likes

of which most passengers on board had hardly seen before. On the Titanic, even second and third class passengers had more room in their accommodation than first class passengers on older steamships that were plying the waves of the Baltic Sea.

All the Finns aboard were indeed second or third class passengers. Their berths, while clean, modern and spacious by the standards of the day, were often on the lowest decks of the ship. There was no direct connection to the lifeboat deck. This was probably not a major concern for many of them at the time the ship left British waters. Four days later, it would become a matter of life and death.

”Greetings from England. I am bound for America.”

In Forum Marinum, a new narrative museum experience seeks to shed light on the hopes, dreams and last moments of the Finnish migrants on the legendary, doomed passenger liner.

On April 14, at 11.40 p.m., Titanic’s lookouts noticed an iceberg ahead, directly on the ship’s course. An attempt to avoid the collision by reversing the engines and turning was too late. A collision was unavoidable. The iceberg ripped a nearly 90-metre hole in the ship’s steel side, and water started rushing in. In 45 minutes, the ship sent out a distress call on the radio, to be first answered by the RMS Carpathia, 58 sea miles or, rather, four hours away.

The first lifeboats were lowered about an hour after the accident. As the bow of the ship began to fill up with water and the stern rose above the sea, the last lifeboats were able to escape shortly after 2 a.m. on April 15. After a quarter of an hour, the great ship sank under the waves. The Carpathia arrived nearly two hours later and started picking up survivors from the sea.

The exhibition features a framed photo of a serious young woman. Behind the photo, there is a handwritten text: Drowned with the Titanic 15/4.1912 on her way to America! Following 1635 people into oblivion.

was on the Titanic, she would probably be one of these five. It is not known why the photo ended up in that house – perhaps the loved ones of one of these women were living there after the accident?

Even if we know a lot about Titanic’s demise now, 111 years after the accident, many questions remain about the men and women from different countries who died on the legendary ship. Finns aboard the Titanic aims to find answers to some of them: how did the Finnish migrants see and feel about the long journey from the shores of the Baltic Sea to America, and how might they have experienced the sinking of the ship itself?

The new museum experience in Forum Marinum tells the tale of the 64 Finnish passengers on the Titanic. Unfortunately, most of them sunk with the ship, like so many others aboard. Only 21 survived to tell the tale.

The exhibition features a framed photo of a serious young woman. It was found in a house in Raisio’s Hahdenniemi near Turku, and on the opposite wall was a print depicting the sinking of the Titanic Behind the photo, there is a handwritten text: Drowned with the Titanic 15/4.1912 on her way to America! Following 1635 people into oblivion.

Five Finnish women, of whom we do not have photos, travelled on the Titanic: Wendla Heininen, Ida Strandberg, Ida Ilmakangas, Pieta Ilmakangas and Helena Rosblom. If the woman in the photo

Some stories and interviews of those who survived remain. Anna Turja was a young woman of eighteen travelling alone on the Titanic In 1974, at the age of 81, she gave an interview about her experiences on that fateful night. In the chaos on the ship, she made her way into a lifeboat and survived. More than six decades later, she still remembered how people’s cries for help pierced the darkness of the night, weighing on her mind for the rest of her life. She was lucky that the boat she was in had strong men rowing and that the sea was dead calm – otherwise, the water could easily have flown in and sunk the boat, heavily laden with passengers, with its gunwales just barely above the surface of the Atlantic.

Most others were not so lucky. As the ship sank, Maria Emilia Panula drowned with her five sons, from Ernesti, 17, to Eino, aged one. The Panulas were from Ylihärmä in Ostrobothnia, and on their way to reunite with the father of the family, Juho, in Daisytown near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The new exhibition brings to life the stories of those who perished and thus have no voices, with the help of students and teachers of creative writing at the University of Turku. They have created narrative stories from the point of view of the Finns on board, fictitious but

”The sky was black and the water was black. That’s all there was.”

based on research into the reality of the lives of Finnish migrants. The stories were then read by actors Akseli Kouki, Kirsi Tarvainen, Alexandra Oupornikova and Mikko Kouki, and you can listen to them in the museum and online. The audio stories are only in Finnish, but the texts on display are also in Swedish and English.

Finns aboard the Titanic was opened in January 2023, and it will be open all year round in the Kruununmakasiini building, along with Forum Marinum’s permanent exhibitions. The maritime centre’s museum ships are also open in the summer season from June 5 to August 20.

In between 1880 and 1930, altogether 400 000 Finns emigrated to the United States and Canada. For an ordinary worker, the voyage would cost a year’s earnings. Leaving for America wasn’t a decision one would make lightly at that time. Young men and women left their villages in the Finnish countryside to make their fortune across the ocean, where the streets were said to be paved with gold. In reality, building a life on the other side of the Atlantic would of course take a lot of hard work and also good luck. About one fourth of these Finnish migrants returned to their country of birth, and many of them brought back enough hard-earned money to buy their own home and farm in what was for most of this period still known as the Grand Duchy of Finland, an integral part of the huge Russian Empire.

Most of those who remained became Americans in earnest.

The Finnish migrant’s journey to America was long and included many stages. First, one had to reach the southwestern port town of Hanko, a gateway out of Finland, where the major shipping companies operated their passenger vessels from. This first leg of the journey was made by train from the inland to the rocky shores of the Baltic Sea.

In Hanko, many preparations for the journey still needed to be made. Official papers had to be put in order for leaving the Russian Tsar’s domains, and a medical examination was also necessary to ascertain that the would-be immigrant was in what at the time was considered perfect health. Vaccinations against smallpox were given as a matter of course. This is what the authorities across the Atlantic expected. Further examinations were organised in both Britain and the United States for those who had cleared this first hurdle in Finland.

From Hanko onwards, many migrants would take a Finnish Steamship Company (SHO) vessel to the British port of Hull, via Stockholm or Copenhagen. Since the 1890s, this Finnish company had a monopoly position on this route that carried the Grand Duchy’s main exports of the era: affordable Finnish butter to Denmark, and hardy Finnish workers onwards to America.

From Hull, there was a transit across Britain, again by train. After that, finally, in Liverpool or Southampton, the migrants boarded a trans-Atlantic liner bound for New York in the United States of America. There, Ellis Island awaited them, with facilities created for processing immigrants and placing them in medical quarantine before they were allowed to set foot on the mainland and start reaching for their lucky star in America. s

FORUM MARINUM

Linnankatu 72

Open

Tue–Sun 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (Closed 23.–25.6.)

The Exhibition buildings and the museum ship Bore are open all year round.

All the other museum ships will open in summer 5.6.–20.8.2023.

www.forum-marinum.fi

SEE ON MAP (PAGE 18).

”I can’t wait to get to America. God, help me survive this voyage.”

European immigrants on Ellis Island, New York, in 1912.

The new exhibition brings to life the stories of those who perished and thus have no voices.

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Clean sheets and bullfights

Written by Leena parkkinen transLated by Christina saarinen

When I hAd a child, my relationship with hotels changed. What used to be merely a necessity for business trips became instead a luxury. Clean white sheets without crayon stains, on a bed someone else has made, in a room someone else has cleaned and drinking coffee while it’s still hot was my idea of paradise. How wonderful to sleep uninterrupted, without a little person climbing into bed beside me at three in the morning. Not to mention the shower, where I could stay as long as I wanted without anyone banging on the door, shouting “Mom, mom, mom!”

Before I had a child, I had thought the word “mom” from the mouth of a small child might be the most beautiful word in the world. Nowadays, I think it might also be the most irritating.

For the first three years of my child’s life, I parented entirely on my own. In practice, it meant that I was never alone. After having a baby, I didn’t particularly miss parties, or Pilates classes, or being able to wear earrings or pants that didn’t have elastic waistbands. I missed being able to occasionally sit on the sofa and read an entire magazine, from start to finish. I had friends who had babies at the same time as me. When they wanted to stop nursing, they got a hotel room in town and left their children with their fathers to wean. I don’t think I have ever been more jealous of my friends in my life. My own first night alone in a hotel was still years in the future, which made it all the more wonderful. I will never forget the dear hotel in Pori where I slept eight blessed hours for the first time in years!

For me, the most important thing in hotels has always been the breakfast. I always say that my sister has such a good memory that,

even years later, she can remember every detail about the things that are important to her. For my sister, desserts are especially important. She can remember every single lemon meringue pie she has ever eaten, and where she ate it. I’m not as talented. I only remember good breakfasts. I remember how the hotel in Puerto Vallarta had its own breakfast tortilla chef, from whom you could order what you wanted. Mexicans are breakfast people in general. They say a Mexican eats like a king in the morning, a prince at lunch, and a beggar at dinner. I made a habit of eating mostly huevos rancheros, “ranch-style eggs,” for breakfast, which were cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and eaten with tortillas.

There was a breakfast chef in Beijing, too. There you could order your own breakfast noodles and smoothies. But the best breakfast of all was in Vaasa. My daughter was very small then, and when I traveled to literature festivals, I took both her and my mother with me. I have a photo of me nursing her between talks. What I remember best, however, was how I got to make myself a waffle, topped with homemade cloudberry jam. Perhaps the most beautiful thing you can say to a breastfeeding woman is: “Your waffle is ready.”

If you’re lucky, you might also have the chance to get to know some very interesting people in hotels. I once played cards with a Russian spy and a Japanese soldier in Kyrgyzstan. But perhaps the most exciting person I’ve met was Father Armando, the headmaster of a Catholic school where I had given a talk. After the literature festival, the locals took us to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. The restaurant was famous for its gigantic steaks, which was slightly problematic

because I was a vegetarian. Father Armando had just organized a fundraising event for his school, a boxing match with ticket revenue benefiting the school. To raise additional funds, Father Armando had participated in the boxing himself. His black eye hadn’t completely healed yet. But things had apparently gone better than the previous year, when Father Armando had organized a bullfight. The bull had punctured Father Armando’s lung. What wouldn’t a man or a priest do for his school!

The older I get, the more I understand writers who want to live permanently in a hotel. s

Leena Parkkinen is an author, who loves crisp sheets and breakfast. She is also an award-winning writer, whose books have been published in twelve countries and is loved by both readers and critics.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing you can say to a breastfeeding woman is:

“Your waffle is ready.”

MEDITERRANEAN DELICACIES BY THE

RIVERSIDE

Restaurant Gustavo invites you to enjoy Mediterranean specialities with a Scandinavian twist!

• Wines & pintxos

• Summer terrace menu

• Naples style pizza

• A’la carte dinner

You can also choose takeaway or delivery by Wolt.

Reservations and information: www.gustavo.fi/en

Tel. +358 46 9222 488 • Linnankatu 1, Turku

Varmista näkyvyytesi: Puh. 045 656 7216 | Puh. 040 507 1002

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IF YOU WANT TO SHOP, YOU ONLY NEED ONE STOP!

Shopping centre Skanssi is like a charming little village just 5 km from downtown Turku and it’s easy to get here by car, bus or bicycle. Over 90 stores, the K-Citymarket, excellent, free parking facilities, a wide variety of cafés and restaurants and a nice outdoor patio. What else do you possibly need?