Today is Turkus Birthday, the city is turning 790 years old and it has been through a lot! It is the oldest city in Finland and it was the former capital, unfortunately after Russia won the war against Sweden, the Russian emperor Alexander I thought that Turku was too aligned with Sweden and also way to close to the former ruler so he decided that Helsinki will be the new capital. There also were a lot of fires due to the wooden buildings in the city. The great fire of Turku was in 1827 and about 75% of the city burned down. They rebuild the city but big parts of the central government and The Royal Academy of Turku, the university which the Queen of Sweden opened 1640 in Turku, were moved to Helsinki because they burned down in the fire.
Nowadays Turku is still one of the biggest cities in Finland, but I think the people here are still mad, that the city isn´t the capital. The Finns celebrate the day with a Posankka race on the Aurajoki, free or cheaper entrance to museums and a firework at 9 o´clock.
The Posankka race:
The Posankka and the Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association started the race, to get the peoples interest to keeping the waterways around Turku and the Archipelago clean as well as to raise funds for the work. The race takes place at the Aurajoki and everyone who wants can adopt one little rubber Posankka for 10€ to join the race. The money goes to the Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association. The first 10 Posankas who cross the finish line are getting a reward. Afterwards all the Posankas are fished out of the water so the river stays clean.
