Turku Main Library

Turku City Library (Finnish: Turun kaupunginkirjasto, Swedish: Åbo stadsbibliotek) is a municipal public library in Turku. The Main Library is located in the VI District at the city centre. The Turku City Library also operates several branch libraries and two mobile libraries. It is part of the Vaski library network, which is a consolidation of 18 public libraries in the Finland Proper region.The library traces its roots to the 1860s, when a privately funded people's library and an academic oriented city library were established in Turku. The municipality of Turku soon took over operating both libraries, and in 1912 they were merged to form the Turku City Library.The Turku City Library has a regional development responsibility in the regions of Finland Proper and Satakunta. The libraries with regional development responsibility are tasked with developing the working environment of the area's public libraries and updating the staff's skills and knowledge.

The Great Fire of Turku (Finnish: Turun palo and Swedish: Åbo brand) was a conflagration in the city of Turku in 1827. It is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The city had burned once before, in 1681.

The Library Bridge (Finnish: Kirjastosilta, Swedish: Biblioteksbron) is a pedestrian and cycling bridge in Turku designed by Pontek Oy. Located at the city centre, the bridge crosses the Aura River connecting the streets Kauppiaskatu and Rettiginrinne. The bridge was opened for traffic in 2013, and it was named as the result of a public naming contest. The Turku Main Library is located near the bridge.The glass railing of the bridge is illuminated during the dark hours, and the programmable illumination enables the use of different colors during holidays and special occasions. The bridge has won several construction awards.

Lilja is a red granite sculpture by Wäinö Aaltonen, located in Turku, Finland. It is located in Runeberginpuisto near the Aurasilta. It depicts the lily, the flower of the Turku coat of arms. In 1927, the statue was the first public art commission in Turku.Today, the Lilja statue is a central part of Vappu in Turku. The traditional placing of the student cap on the head of the statue was first done in spring 1929 when students decided that, like the Havis Amanda student cap ceremony in Helsinki, Turku needed the same tradition. The student nation Turun yliopiston varsinaissuomalainen osakunta began the traditional cleaning of the statue for Vappu at the end of the 1960s. The Lilja statue also goes by the name Turun Lilja/Åbo Lilja ("the lily of Turku").

Turku and Pori Province (Finnish: Turun ja Porin lääni, Swedish: Åbo och Björneborgs län, Russian: Або-Бьёрнеборгская губерния) was a province of independent Finland from 1917 to 1997. The province was however founded as a county in 1634 when today's Finland was an integrated part of Sweden. It is named after the cities of Turku (Swedish: Åbo) and Pori (Swedish: Björneborg). Åland was split into a separate province in 1918. In 1997 Turku and Pori Province was merged with the northern part of the Häme Province, the provinces of Vaasa and Central Finland into the new Western Finland Province.

Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova is a museum in central Turku, Finland. The museum is housed in a building known as the Rettig palace, originally built in 1928. Aboa Vetus displays portions of the city dating back to medieval times, while Ars Nova is a museum of contemporary art. The museum was first opened in 1885 as two independent museums. Originally, plans were for only Ars Nova, the contemporary art museum, but during its construction a number of structures and artifacts dating back to the Middle Ages were discovered, and the archaeological excavation that was commissioned eventually transformed into Aboa Vetus. The two museums were combined in 2004 and Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova is now among the most popular tourist venues in the entire region of Southwest Finland.

Hamburger Börs was an Art Nouveau hotel building in Turku, Finland, next to the Market Square built in 1909. It was designed by Frithiof Strandell as an expansion to a hotel located on Kauppiaskatu. The building had 30 hotel rooms. The inner yard hosted the Metropol film theatre, which had been built into a brick warehouse according to Strandell's plans. The theatre later functioned with the names Lyyra V and Rialto up to the 1960s.Oy Centrum Ab sold the property to the Turku cooperative in 1942, and the cooperative planned how to make better use of the lot. The planning of the renovation started in the 1970s. Both the Finnish Museum Board and the Turku museum board wanted to protect the building. Plans for dismantling the building were published in 1976 and this drew media attention all around the country. There were differing opinions about the need to protect the building, and the intendant of the Turku Museum of Art Erik Bergh said that the building did not fit into its surroundings at all and could be dismantled.The Turku city council accepted the dismantling plan. The Finnish People's Democratic League, the museum board, the Arts foundation for the Province of Turku and Pori and the milieu political Enemmistö ry opposed the dismantling. The Finnish state rejected the complaints about the dismantling in December 1976 and dismantling could being. Although the protection of Port Arthur had awoken citizen activism, it was Hamburger Börs that made citizens of Turku demonstrate against dismantling for the first time. Dismantling began despite of the protests, and the new hotel building was built in 1979.The old hotel building with 14 rooms on Kauppiaskatu was spared and was reinforced in 2003. At the same time, elements in Strandell's original plans were restored to its facade and the coat of arms of Hamburg which had been on its wall since 1894 was restored. This building had originally been a two-floor stone house built in the 1830s, which had had an extra floor built and had been renovated to the Art Nouveau style from 1903 to 1904 according to Strandell's plans. The glass paintings of the building were designed by the German Willy Baer.

Aurora Society was a secret society and a national Finnish literary society at the Royal Academy of Turku from 1770 to 1779. The Society consisted of many prominent members of the Finnish cultural sphere and had as its focal points poetry, Finnish history, geography and the research of language and economy.The Society published Finland's first newspaper, Åbo Tidningar (Tidningar Utgifne Af et Sällskap i Åbo), between the years 1771 to 1778, and 1782 to 1785. Furthermore, the first public orchestra concerts in Finland were also organized by the Aurora Society. The society was a typical product of the Enlightenment period: a secret society on one hand and a cultural and educational organization on the other. [1]

Turku City Hall (Finnish: Turun kaupungintalo, Swedish: Åbo stadshus) is a Neo-Renaissance building located on the bank of the Aura River in Turku, Finland. The City Council of Turku convenes at Turku City Hall. The Mayor used to work in an Art Nouveau building near to the City Hall, the Turku City Office until 2011. It was originally designed by Charles Bassi from 1810-1811 as the restaurant Seurahuone. The building survived the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. It was redone 1879-1883 as the city hall under plans by Frans A. Sjöström. The first floor used to have the register office of Turku up until 1975 and Turku district court until 1997. After the district court of Turku moved to the new Turku courthouse, the first floor was replaced by work, meeting and legislative spaces in 1999. The second floor of the building is decorated with gold and massive crystal crowning. The wing of the building, located on Aurakatu 4, is for city council groups' rooms and travel agency services. The public can enter the building during specific events such as Turku Day. The public is also permitted to witness the city council assembly.

The Qwensel House is the oldest wooden house in Turku, Finland. It is bourgeois housing from the autarchic times that has survived in its entirety. The house was built approximately in the year 1700 in an area that was reserved for the nobility in the city plan made up by Peter Brahe in 1652. Today, the Qwensel House operates as the Turku Pharmacy Museum and café.

The VI District is the northernmost of the central districts of Turku, Finland. It is located on the west side of the river Aura, to the east of Aurakatu. It forms part of the city's central business district, hosting a large proportion of the city's business life, particularly around the central Market Square (Kauppatori). The city's main bus station and the head library are also located in this district. The Finnish national road 1 begins in the VI District. The district is the fifth largest in the city, having a population of 6,187 (as of 2004) and an annual population growth rate of -0.15%. 5.11% of the district's population are under 15 years old, while 22.64% are over 65. The district's linguistic makeup is 87.23% Finnish, 10.00% Swedish, and 2.77% other.

Katedralskolan i Åbo (the Cathedral School of Åbo) is the Swedish-language upper secondary school of Turku, located at the Old Great Square (the town, former capital of Finland, is known as Åbo in Swedish). The school believes that it was founded in 1276 for the education of boys to become servants of the Church. The schoolhouse was situated within the wall surrounding the Cathedral of Turku. Mikael Agricola, the founder of Finnish literature, was the headmaster of the school 1539-1548. When the Royal Academy of Turku, now the University of Helsinki, was founded in 1640, the senior part of the school formed the core of the new university, while the junior year courses formed a trivialskola, a grammar school. The graduates of Turku Cathedral School were eligible to be admitted to the university. The current schoolhouse was built after the Great Fire of Turku in 1827. In 1830, the city of Turku also obtained a gymnasium, a higher secondary school, while the older Catedral School became a preparatory school of the new gymnasium. To reflect this, the name of the Cathedral School was changed in 1840 to Högre Elementarläroverk, literally "Higher Elementary School". In the education reform of 1872, the Högre Elementarläroverk and the gymnasium were merged into Svenska klassiska lyceum i Åbo, a Swedish-speaking classical school. In the 1970s Svenska klassiska lyceum and Åbo svenska flicklyceum, The Swedish Girls' Secondary School of Turku, were united and the old school name Katedralskolan i Åbo, the Cathedral School of Turku, was revived. Since the Swedish Reformation in the early 16th century, the Cathedral School and its successors had been financed by the state. In 1977, the introduction of the comprehensive school system in Turku also caused the transferral of the Katedralskolan to the City of Turku. At the same time, the school lost its five lowest classes (age groups 10–15). Since then, the Cathedral School has denoted the three-year upper secondary school at Gamla Stortorget 1, providing academically-oriented secondary education to comprehensive school graduates. In theory, the Katedralskolan is the oldest institution of learning of Finland as it has an organizational continuity from the medieval Cathedral school, founded in 1276.