Torne Valley

Torne Valley (Finnish Tornionlaakso ) is a valley in northern Europe, which is älv drained by the Torne. The term is also frequently used to name the cultural region, which is characterized by multilingualism and - despite contemporary belonging to two states - has a common history. Torne Valley is a European region.

In the town is home to the settlements languages ​​Finnish, Swedish, North Sami and Meänkieli be spoken, have official status here. In the Swedish part of each resident has the right to communicate with public bodies in one of these languages ​​.

The whole valley was originally a part of the historical Swedish province of Lapland and Norrbotten, to the left bank along with Finland in 1809 Russian territory. Many towns in the region had separated residential areas on both sides of the river and were. However, some settlements still bear a common name. Other similarities, such as similar food preparation, have survived to the present day.

Cities

• Haparanda (Sweden)
• Tornio (Finland )