Turku is a small town with a big soul

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This was published 13 years ago

Turku is a small town with a big soul

Turku by night.

Turku by night.Credit: Turku2011/Seilo Ristimäki

From ancient castle to modern docks, museums to avant-garde music, Norman Miller explores the creative heart of Turku - before the crowds arrive.

WINTER may have crept up on Turku but Finland's former capital doesn't do seasonal gloom. Long nights just focus one of northern Europe's secret beauties on cosy daytime hangouts and heat-generating nightlife, while the city gets ready to step into the cultural spotlight as European Capital of Culture, 2011.

The Capital of Culture opening weekend starts on January 14, with concerts along the Aura River, dockyard art installations and extravagant fireworks displays. The festivities will also celebrate Turku's dark side – watch out for the "live music and images of death" concert series and the "death and its many faces" exhibitions.

Colourscape will be opened and concluded with the Music of the Spheres performance on the River Aura, where giant spheres floating on the river engulf the performers.

Colourscape will be opened and concluded with the Music of the Spheres performance on the River Aura, where giant spheres floating on the river engulf the performers.

The Capital of Culture hub is Logomo, a cavernous former engineering workshop in the heart of the city's old shipbuilding area. Logomo will host concerts and exhibitions and the city hopes this redevelopment project will continue to be an arts hub well after next year's spotlight has dimmed.

Along the banks of the Aura, where it flows into the skerry-strewn Gulf of Bothnia in south-western Finland, Turku combines cutting-edge creativity with the historic pride of an important mediaeval city. It was only in the early 1800s after Russia seized the country from Sweden that the capital was moved to Helsinki, closer to the Russian border. Turku locals still gently mock this moment of geopolitics by pointing out that Helsinki at the time was "just a fishermen's village with six huts".

I head for the Turku Art Museum, on a parkland hilltop, to take in classic Nordic landscapes before walking back into town. Vanha Suurtori (Old Great Square) provides a grand starting point for a waterside stroll, its 13th-century red-brick cathedral, the national shrine, set opposite the former town hall, whose ochre facade now encloses arty shops and the laid-back Book Cafe (Vanha Suurtori 3). Here, too, from late November, is Finland's oldest Christmas market.

In summer, the Aura is a hub of hedonism, with floating bars and restaurants, but in winter few keep the flame burning. One of them is Svarte Rudolf, where hearty Finnish fare of peppery pork and fried herring provide a warming winter lunch. Along the river bank, a few surviving clapboard buildings provide a pared-back contrast to the ornate 19th-century piles built in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed much of the old city in 1827. One now holds the Aboa Vetus/Ars Nova "double museum" of evocative mediaeval ruins below, bold contemporary art above.

Further along, a trio of historic three-masted ships mark the Forum Marinum maritime museum, though I don't linger as my focus is Turku Castle. This pale-stone 13th-century edifice once housed the likes of "mad artist king" Erik XIV. Now its maze of rooms atmospherically chronicles Turku's history from mediaeval times. I fast-forward 700 years to St Henry's Ecumenical Art Chapel, built in 2005 on Hirvensalo Island, just outside Turku. St Henry's is one of the most lauded pieces of modern architecture in Scandinavia, with a copper roof that looks like an upturned boat on a hillock of pines.

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Hirvensalo is one of thousands of islands in the Turku Archipelago – scattered across the Baltic Sea, it is one of Finland's most stunning areas. Many islands are laced with biking trails and come into their own in summer. Ruissalo (population 126) hosts the Ruisrock music festival every summer. Ozzy Osbourne and Slash played last year.

Back on the mainland, I lunch at Harald, a Viking-themed restaurant with a menu that includes reindeer and bear and multiple ways with herring (try the delicious tar-infused version). For contrast, Mami restaurant showcases regional food – roasted celery soup with smoked reindeer, duck with chanterelles and apples – in the sort of chic surroundings fitting a place voted Finland's best city restaurant.

While the food offers pleasing unfamiliarity, Turku's shops provide familiar retail temptations for lovers of Nordic design, with the likes of Marimekko, Artek and Turku creatives available around the Market Square. But I'm happy looking for retro shops, striking gold along Maariankatu.

Quirky bar conversions are another Turku speciality. I wander happily through the own-brew beer list and distinctive rooms at the former school reborn as Koulu, check out liquid assets at the self-explanatory Old Bank and top myself up at the one-time public loo, which is now Puutorin Vessa.

Turku's music scene offers DJ bars scattered about the centre at places such as Dynamo, opposite Turku's gorgeous modernist library, which oozes a shabby-chic vibe. A few minutes' walk away, Bar Kuka offers Mod-influenced decor (the owner loves the Who) with a mix from folk to electro, while around the corner Monk pulls in jazz hipsters. I end the night at Cup & Pint, opposite the train station, a stylish modern bar.

Turku hopes to attract 2 million visitors in 2011. But if you want to get in before the rush, there's plenty here, in a small town with a big soul.

Trip notes

Getting there

Most major airlines fly from Sydney to Britain. flightcentre.com.au. Finnair flies from Heathrow and Manchester to Turku via Helsinki, priced from £184 ($294) return. finnair.com. The train from Helsinki to Turku takes two hours; tickets are priced from €58 return. vr.fi.

Staying there

The Park Hotel has double rooms from €130 a night. +358 2 273 2555, www.parkhotelturku.fi.

Eating there

Harald is open seven days. Aurakatu 3, +358 44 766 8204, ravintolaharald.fi.

Restaurant Mami, Linnankatu 3, +358 2 231 1111, mami.fi.

See + do

Logomo will be open daily, 11am-7pm from January 16 to December 18, 2011. It is within walking distance of Turku railway station. www. logomo.fi.

Turku Art Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday. turuntaidemuseo.fi.

Aboa Vetus/Ars Nova is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-7pm. www.aboavetusarsnova.fi.

Turku Castle is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-6pm. www.nba.fi/en/turku-castle.

More information

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