Turku travel guide: Finland's Oldest City, on the River Aura

The banks of the Aura, the city’s favourite place to walk. (Photo: Henry Hagnäs from Turku, Finland, CC BY 2.0)

Turku (in Swedish, Åbo) is Finland's oldest city and, until the mid-19th century, its largest. It is where modern Finnish culture was cradled, and its history is much of the country's. Its food has earned it the nickname "the Paris of Finland"; its position, "Finland's gateway to the West". About 195,000 people lived here in 2021.

The city grew up on the River Aura, and the river is still its heart: museums, sights, restaurants and cafés line the banks, which form a national urban park you can follow on foot from the cathedral to the castle. Near its mouth lies Ruissalo island, with oak forests and 19th-century villas, and beyond it the Archipelago Sea, which runs all the way to Åland and on to Stockholm — the world's largest archipelago by number of islands and islets.

The name Turku comes from an Old East Slavic word for "marketplace"; where Åbo comes from is unclear.

Centuries at the center

Under Swedish rule Turku was the most important city in what is now Finland, trading busily as part of the Hanseatic world. After the fire the German architect Carl Ludvig Engel drew a new town plan; little of its architecture survives, because many old buildings were replaced in the 1960s and 1970s — the "disease of Turku". Today the city's shipyard is a world leader in building large cruise ships, for lines such as Royal Caribbean, Carnival and TUI Cruises, and employs some 8,000 people directly and indirectly.

What to see

• Turku Cathedral, consecrated in 1300 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St Henry, Finland's first bishop, is the country's national sanctuary, its most valuable historic monument and the mother church of the Lutheran Church of Finland. Its bells ring at noon on the radio across Finland and proclaim the Christmas Peace; a queen, Catherine Månsdotter of Sweden, lies beneath its arches. It is closed for renovation from February 2026 until Advent 2028.
• Turku Castle, near the harbor, is the largest castle in Finland, dating to the end of the 13th century and at times home to Swedish royalty; it is also the region's history museum.
• Luostarinmäki (Cloister Hill), then a poor district on the edge of town, was the only large part of Turku to survive the 1827 fire. It is preserved as a handicraft museum.
• Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova pairs the city's history and archaeology — shown among excavated ruins — with a museum of modern art.
• Also worth a visit: the Turku Art Museum, strong on Finnish art of around 1900; the Sibelius Museum of music; the Pharmacy Museum in the Qwensel House; the Forum Marinum maritime center; and St Michael's Church on the western skyline.
• Ruissalo, 5 km from the market square, has the university's botanical garden, oak woods, beaches and villas.

Turku Cathedral. (Photo: Markus Koljonen ( Dilaudid ), CC BY-SA 3.0)

Turku Castle. (Photo: Markus Koljonen ( Dilaudid ), CC BY-SA 3.0)

Luostarinmäki, the district the Great Fire spared. (Photo: Andrei Niemimäki from Turku, Finland, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The ruin hall of Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, its vaults suggested by bands of light. (Photo: GualdimG, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Evening at Ruissalo. (Photo: Grzegorz Jereczek from Gdańsk, Poland, CC BY-SA 2.0)

When to go

Turku has four distinct seasons. From late May to early September days typically reach 20–25 °C, and the city fills with festivals — rock, chamber music and a Medieval Market by the river. Winters bring frequent snow and temperatures mostly between 0 and −15 °C, down to about −25 °C; in a good winter people walk, ski and skate on the frozen Aura, and locals go ice swimming at Ispoinen beach. The Christmas season opens a week before Advent with lights along Yliopistonkatu, the tree at the cathedral, and a Christmas market in the Old Great Square — where the Christmas Peace is declared.

A band at the Medieval Market. (Photo: JIP, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Christmas market at the Old Great Square. (Photo: LPfi, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Ice swimming at Ispoinen beach. (Photo: Candida.Performa, CC BY 2.0)

Getting there and around

The most scenic arrival is by cruise ferry across the Baltic from Stockholm or Kapellskär, calling in Åland at Mariehamn or Långnäs. The port is beside the castle; bus line 1 links it with the center and the airport, and the 3 km walk along the river is a pleasant alternative with light luggage. From the river, boats sail into the archipelago — to the island of Vepsä in an hour, or aboard the family-owned steamship s/s Ukkopekka to Naantali, with its wooden old town, Moomin World and Kultaranta, the Finnish president's summer residence.

The Viking Grace passing Ruissalo on her way to Stockholm. (Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Ukkopekka on her way from Naantali to Turku. (Photo: Timo Renberg Original uploader was Porovuori at fi.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sources

• "Turku" from Wikivoyage, by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed: rewritten in hubnx's own words and condensed; listings, addresses, prices, opening hours and phone numbers left out; each photo under its own licence, credited in its caption. This page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.