Southwest Finland
Varsinais -Suomi [ ˌ vɑrsinɑi̯s suɔmi ] (Swedish Egentliga Finland, German, Finland Proper ') is a landscape ( Maakunta ) in southwestern Finland. Administrative seat and largest city of Varsinais -Suomi is Turku ( Åbo schwed. ), the oldest city in Finland.
Geography and population
Varsinais -Suomi is located on the Baltic coast, in southwestern Finland, bordering the Satakunta landscapes in the north and Kanta -Häme and Uusimaa in the east. With a population of around 460,000 Varsinais -Suomi Uusimaa and Pirkanmaa is according to the Finnish landscape with the third largest population.
Off the coast of the scenery, the Archipelago Sea (Finnish Saaristomeri, swedish Skärgårdshavet ), a sea area with tens of thousands of islets, on which a total of approximately 27,000 people. In the west the archipelago of Varsinais -Suomi go over in the autonomous province of Åland. The southern part of the archipelago is Swedish-speaking area, and there is one in Turku Finland-Swedish minority. The rest of the landscape is Finnish-speaking. Overall, 5.7 % of the population of Varsinais -Suomi are Swedish-speaking.
History
The landscape Varsinais -Suomi came in the middle of the 12th century by a crusade of the Swedish King Erik IX. under Swedish rule. The dated 1155 or 1156 crusade, the date of the Christianization of Finland, archaeological findings point out, however, that Christianity had already been used in Southwest Finland. At this time was understood as "Finland" only the territory of Varsinais -Suomi, from which the name of the landscape ( German " Finland Proper " ) is derived. Only later was the term referring to all inhabited by the Finns areas.
In the 13th century Turku was founded as the first city in Finland. She stayed for over half a millennium, the most important city in Finland. It was not until 1809 Finland became a Grand Duchy under Russian rule, the capital was moved to the hitherto insignificant Helsinki.
Was founded in 1831 from the historic landscapes Varsinais -Suomi and Satakunta province Turku - Pori. This lasted until 1997, when the number of the provinces of twelve halved to six and Turku - Pori was connected to the province of Western Finland.
Coat of arms
Description: In a red gold -winning golden Spangenhelm en face set ( facing the viewer ), behind which on each side, a blue flag flies with small triangular incision at the air side and with golden cross on the golden floor. On the coat of arms rests a golden crown.
- See also arms of the Finnish region of Varsinais -Suomi
Administrative divisions
In the landscape Varsinais -Suomi there are 28 municipalities. Eleven of them are cities (in bold). The towns of Parga and Kimitoön are bilingual with Swedish as the majority language, Turku is bilingual with Finnish as the majority language. The remaining municipalities are monolingual Finnish. The name is specified in the respective majority language in bilingual communities is possibly the name in the minority language in parentheses. Population figures as at 31 December, 2012.
The communities of Varsinais -Suomi grouped into five administrative Communities ( Seutukunta ). The administrative Communities Turku, Salo and Loimaa each house is the eponymous town, together with the surrounding area. Vakka -Suomi covers the northwestern part of the landscape, Åboland ( Turunmaa ) the Swedish-speaking part of the archipelago area.