Turku Things to Do

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The walk along the river is very nice; you can easily walk from the centre with cathedral to the western part of the city with the castle.
The river is full of boats and ships. Because there are almost no bridges over it, the special small ferry boats between the banks.

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The castle's interior is very interesting, however almost all the information in rooms are in Finnish only (sometimes in Swedish as well, hmm... :-D), which I found quite annoying.
Castle is spacious and even that not all rooms are opened to public, it takes around two hours to get through.
Entrance was 7 EUR.

Built in the 13th century.
However it is very nice, I liked the cathedrals in Helsinki and Tampere more, because their interior was more simple and gave a stronger impression of majesty.
Inside there is a crypt of the Swedish queen Catherine.

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If you happen to be here at Cristmas,you might see lots of people in Cristmas-eve at 12 o´clock waiting for the church bell to struck twelve times for Cristmas to begin.Whole Finland maybe is sitting by the TV to hear that,and after that the speach from"Raatihuone"(old town hall)-balcony red in very old Finnish and telling that crimes made after this until 6th of january will be punished twice harder than usually.I don´t think it´s true anymore,but my Cristmas doesn´t start without hearing this funny old text.I belive it´s over hundred years old,and it sounds like that,too.

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we love everything old,so we love this place.We have been here three times.This time was on December and we belived,that they were having a Cristmas-fair,but it has only been one weekend-and not all weekends in December,as we understood.That´s why it was little desapointment,but in summer this is nice!

The sea center posesses several true vessels which are laid up at the coast of Aurajoki. The most well-known - sailing frigate Suomen Joutsen, in translation "the Finnish swan". It was constructed in 1902 in Saint-Nazaire in France (thanks Jean-Louis for his correction!) and it was originally used for transportation of cargoes between Europe and South America.

Then it belonged to Germans, and in 1930 - Finns bought it. They gave it the present name. During the Second world war the frigate served as a depot for submarines and hospital. From 1991 it is a ship-museum.

Black three-mast sailing vessel "Sigyn" is last kept wooden bark, suitable for navigations at the open ocean. It was constructed in 1887 in the Geteborg (Sweden) and went to Canada, Africa, India and South America. In 1927 it was bought by Finns. From 1939 it's a ship-museum.

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This is the Cathedral of Turku, located very close to the Aura river and decorated in a very simple -yet beautiful- style. It's a very old building (700 years old!! Wow) and some Finnish & Swedish personalities are buried here.

The building itself is beautiful when seen from the outside. If you look at the picture I took inside, you will see that there is almost no decoration: the walls are plain white, there are no huge and colorful sculptures, and the most impressive thing is the gothic style arches above the aisle. However, the organ is quite big & amazing as well. There are periodic organ concerts held in the church, especially during the summer. You can find the details right at the cathedral (there are posters and/or flyers with the information available there), and the entrance is free!!! At least for the concert I attended -- featuring a French female organ player -- it was ;-)

One more interesting tip: the first bridge that was ever built over the Aura river is located right in front of the Cathedral.

The Forum Marinum is a maritime centre which includes a quay area of the river Aura.

It offers a close look to several types of ships like the full-rigger Suomen Joutsen from 1902, the Sigyn barque and a minelayer.

Directions:
The Forum Marinum is located at the River Aura near Turku Castle.