Tornio (Swedish: Torneå) is a Finnish city in the province of Lapland on
the Swedish border. Tornio is the center of the Tornio River Valley and the
most important border crossing point between Finland and Sweden.
Tornio
has a population of 21,614 (30 June 2020) and an area of 1,348.83 km² (1 January
2020), of which 1,188.78 km² of land, 40.46 km² of inland waters and the remaining
119.59 km² of sea.
Tornio was the northernmost city in Finland until
the form of Rovaniemi changed from a township to a city in 1960. Founded in
1621, Tornio is the oldest city in Lapland. The neighboring municipalities of
Tornio are Kemi, Keminmaa, Tervola and Ylitornio. The city of Tornio has a lot
of co-operation with its Swedish border neighbor, Haparanda.
Several large Christian summer events have been organized in Tornio. The summer parties of the Vanhoillislestadioists have been organized in Tornio five times, in 1909, 1929, 1952, 1994 and 2016.
Tornionlaakso Museum
Aineen Art Museum - An active meeting place for
visual arts. Offering, among other things, collection exhibitions, temporary
exhibitions, workshops and lectures.
Lapin Kulta Brewery - The brewery was
founded in 1873 and was the oldest industrial plant in Northern Finland. The
brewery's operations were discontinued in 2010.
Children's Traffic Park - The
activities are mainly intended for children under 10 years of age and their
parents.
Tornio Church - The church was consecrated in 1686.
Alatornion
Church
Karungi Church
Tornio Orthodox Church
Shopping Centre on the
Border - På Gränsen
Tornio Water Tower
Duudsonit Activity Park
TornioHaparanda
The dialect spoken in Tornio does not differ much from the dialect of the inhabitants of other municipalities on the western border. On the other hand, the people of Tornio Valley living on the Swedish side generally speak Meänkiel, or Tornio Valley Finnish, in addition to Swedish, which clearly differs from the Ostrobothnian dialects on the Finnish side, especially due to the considerable vocabulary influence of Swedish.
Tornio's sporting life has been lively over the past hundred years. The first
sports competitions in the Tornio region were cross-country skiing competitions
on the ice of the Tornio River in 1894.
At the beginning of the century,
sports activities were launched within the framework of Tornio Pyry, which was
founded in November 1905 in the aftermath of the general strike to continue the
activities of the National Guard. In 1935, a separate club was established for
ball sports, Tornion Palloveikot (ToPV), whose sports included football in the
summer and ice hockey and futsal in the winter. In the first two decades of
independence, the civil protection organization was a key organizer of sports
activities. In particular, shooting and baseball in the summer, and skiing and
biathlon in the winter, were the main sports of civil protection sports. The
Kokkokangas terrain became the competition venues for shooting, skiing and
biathlon. The market square served as a venue for football and baseball, and ice
hockey was played on the ice of the Tornion River.
After World War II,
more clubs were established in the city, including Tornion Tarmo, which was part
of the TUL, and a new special club for ball sports, Tornion Pallo –47 (TP-47),
which was founded by members of the Tornion VR. TP-47 later became known
especially as a football club.
Since the 1970s, specialisation in a
particular sport has also been typical in Tornio. Tornion Palloveikot is a
particularly strong ice hockey club and Tornion Pallo –47 is a football club.
Other specialist ball clubs include Tornion IHC in ice hockey, Tornion Lentis-88
in volleyball and Tornion Palloketut in rinkball. Tornion Palloveikot is also
the city's number one floorball club. The number one club in skiing and
athletics is Alatornion Pirkat.
Ball sports have been played at Pohjan
Stadion since the 1950s, which has been used exclusively by track and field
athletes and football players since the 1980s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the
natural ice field in Näränperä served as the ice hockey venue, and since the
1990s, the artificial ice in Haparanda Gränsvallen has been the playing arena.
Ice hockey, hockey and volleyball are practiced at the Putaa Sports Centre. The
main venue for cross-country skiing is the Puuluoto Ski Centre.
Other
sports venues include the Putaa Swimming Hall for swimmers, Laivakangas for
trotting and shotgun shooting, Näränperä for archers and golfers, and Röyttä for
sailors.
Famous athletes who grew up in Tornio over the decades have
included, among others, track and field athlete and Olympic champion Ville
Pörhölä, track and field athletes Erik Åström and Tauno Kontio, skier Jari
Isometsä, professional footballer Teemu Tainio, slalom world champion Kalle
Palander, and ice hockey players Ville Pokka and Jesse Puljujärvi.
The Tornio River estuary has been inhabited since the last ice age. By 1995, 16 ancient settlements had been found in the area. They are similar to those found in Vuollerim around 6000–5000 BC. Most of the current urban area, however, only rose from the sea during the last millennium due to post-glacial land uplift. Around the year 1000, the mouth of the Tornio River was located at Kukkolankoski, 14 kilometers north of the current city center.
Before its founding, Tornio was known as a meeting point for trade routes,
from which Nordic products, salmon and Lapland furs, left for world markets.
Tornio is named after the Tornio River, which flows along the western border
of Finland. The origin of the name Tornio River has been disputed, but according
to current understanding, it contains the old Häme word ‘tornio’ meaning a war
spear. The explanation based on the Swedish word ‘torne’ (tower) is no longer
considered plausible. Lake Tornio (Northern Sami: Duortnosjávri) is probably
named after the river, as the oldest known documents mention the lake as
Iretresk.
Tornio received its city rights by order of King Gustav II
Adolf of Sweden on 12 May 1621 and was officially founded on Suensaari
(Sudensaari). The name may have come from a landowner in the area, or from
Swensarö, the island of the Swedes.
At the time of its founding, Tornio
was the northernmost city in the world at the time.
The city was founded
in recognition of Tornio’s position as a trading centre during the 16th century.
Tornio grew to become the largest trading city in the north and was for a few
years the wealthiest city in the Kingdom of Sweden. Despite its lively trade
with Lapland and overseas regions, the city's population remained at a level of
just over 500 people for hundreds of years.
In the 18th century, Tornio
was visited by a few Central European explorers who came to explore the Arctic
regions. The most significant expedition took place in 1736–1737, when Pierre
Louis Moreau de Maupertuis and his research team from the French Academy arrived
to make measurements along the Tornio River. Among other things, triangulation
measurements made from the top of Aavasaksa succeeded in proving that the Earth
is a sphere flattened at the poles, a geoid.
The trade of Lapland, on which Tornio depended, began to decline during the
19th century. Due to land subsidence, the river had become too narrow for water
transport and the port of Tornio had to be moved downstream. The most
significant blow to the wealthy city, however, came in the Finnish War of 1808,
at the end of which Finland was annexed to the Russian Empire. The border was
drawn along the deepest channel of the Muonion River, continuing to the Tornion
River estuary. The line divided Lapland into two parts, which was fatal for
trade. In contrast to the other border lines, the Russian emperor demanded that
Suensaari, located west of the deepest channel of the Tornion River, and with it
the center of Tornio, be annexed to Russia. The Swedes founded the village of
Haparanda (now a city) west of the border to balance the loss of Tornio.
During Russian rule, Tornio was a small garrison town. Trade only picked up
during the Crimean War and World War I. At that time, Tornio became an important
border crossing. During World War I, Tornio and Haparanda were the only
connection between Russia and their western allies.
After Finland gained independence in 1917, the first battles of the civil war
took place in February 1918 in the area of the Tornio railway station. As a
result of the battles, the Russian soldiers in Tornio were captured.
Tornio lost its garrison. However, the city's population began to grow steadily.
During the Lapland War, towards the end of World War II, Finland considered
the removal of German soldiers from the country as a condition of the peace
treaty. The most significant battle of the Lapland War took place near the city
center of Tornio, when Finnish soldiers who arrived by sea from Oulu landed in
the city occupied by the Germans. The quickly successful recapture apparently
saved the city from being burned.
For example, Tornio Church from 1686,
one of the most significant old buildings in Tornio, was preserved.
Tornio reached its current area in 1973, when the neighboring municipalities of
Alatornio and Karunki were merged into the city of Tornio.
After World
War II, the city has been particularly employed by the brewery owned by
Hartwall, known for its Lapin Kulta beer. In the 1960s, Outokumpu Oyj built a
ferrochrome factory in the Röytä district, which produces the raw material for
stainless steel, and in 1976 the company's stainless steel factory was started
up there. In the decades following the war, large textile industry plants have
also been significant employers in Tornio, for example the Kerilon nylon yarn
factory and the Norlyn hosiery factory. The textile industry has now withered
away to nothing. Tourism in the Tornio River Valley has grown in recent years.
Tornio switched to a mayor system in 1929. Before that, the city was led by
mayors, who were elected on the basis of their law degree and expertise.
Tornio is located on the northern coast of the Bay of Bothnia on the border
between Finland and Sweden. The centre of Tornio is on Suensaari, which has
expanded to the Swedish border due to land uplift and artificial land filling.
The principle of border demarcation between Sweden and Finland, according to
which the national border runs along the deepest bed of the Muonio and Tornion
rivers, makes an exception for the centre of Tornio.
Tornio's
neighbouring municipalities to the southeast are Kemi and Keminmaa, to the
northeast, Tervola to the north, Ylitornio to the north and Haparanda in Sweden
to the west. The city of Haparanda, located directly opposite Tornio, forms a
twin city with Tornio, despite being a different country and time zone. The city
of Kemi is located approximately 25 kilometres southeast of Tornio. Together
with the surrounding municipalities, these two cities form the Kemi–Tornio
subregion.
The city centre is only part of the Tornio area, which reaches the Tornion
river. The city is 83 kilometres (51 mi) long and 44 kilometres (27 mi) wide.
Excluding the sea areas, the area covers 1,228.38 square kilometres (41.37 sq
mi) of inland waters. This gives the city a low population density of 18.9
inhabitants per square kilometre. Most of the land area is built-up area.
The Tornio landscape is impressive, with the Tornio River. At over 500
kilometres (310 mi) long, it is the largest free-flowing river in Europe.
Despite the variations, the flow is high for Finnish conditions: at Karungi,
water flows at 367 cubic metres per second, with a maximum of 3,180 cubic metres
per second. Tornio belongs to the boreal zone. The dominant tree species are
spruce and pine, with birch being the most common deciduous tree. About half of
the entire area is bog. The highest point in Tornio is Kaakamavaara, at 189
metres (610 ft). The coastal areas rise 6–8 millimeters above sea level annually
due to land uplift. The coast is rugged and its outermost area is part of the
Bothnian Bay National Park.
The climate in Tornio is temperate and also has features of a maritime
climate.
The average annual temperature in Tornio is 0–2 °C. The warmest
month is July with an average temperature of 16 °C, the coldest is February with
−11 °C. The thermal growing season is 135–145 days long. The annual
precipitation is 500–550 millimeters. Permanent snow cover usually occurs from
mid-March to early May.
The center of Tornio is located about 80
kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. Around the time of the summer solstice,
the sun does not set below the horizon at all. In winter, the area is dark for a
very long time, when the day is only three hours long.
Tornio is an industrial city. The most significant employer in Tornio is
Outokumpu, whose stainless steel manufacturing Tornio steel mill employs over
2,000 people. Thanks to Outokumpu, a strong metal and engineering cluster has
emerged in the Torp industrial area. Outokumpu has recently planned to expand
its ferrochrome mill in Tornio, which would create 100 new jobs.
Until
August 2010, a 130-year-old beer and soft drink factory operated on Suensaari in
Tornio, producing Hartwall's (formerly Lapin Kulta) internationally renowned
Lapin Kulta beer. The brewery employed 200–300 employees at its peak, and around
100 at its last stage. In 2016, the Lappari Experience Factory was established
on the factory premises, where several different operators operate, such as Club
Teatria and Tornion Brewery.
Tornio is the starting point of two highways. The only 16-kilometer-long
highway 29 to Keminmaa offers fast access to Kemi. The highway is the
northernmost motorway in the world and most of it is called the Bothnian Sea.
Highway 21 follows the Swedish border to Kilpisjärvi. European Route 8 follows
highways 21 and 29. European Route 4 starts in Tornio; the road is only a few
hundred meters on the Finnish side and continues all the way through Sweden to
Helsingborg in the south. 18,000 vehicles cross the Tornio-Haparanda border
every day, making it the busiest border in the Nordic countries. In spring 2019,
Tornio will get its first street named after a woman, when Irma Stormbom's
street will be created.
Haparanda and Tornio share a bus station, the
Haparanda–Tornio Travel Center. It is located on the Haparanda side, a hundred
meters from the border.
Railways from Tornio lead in three different
directions: the Oulu–Tornio line runs along the shore of the Baltic Sea to Oulu,
the Kolari line follows the Tornionjoki River to Kolari, and the
Tornio–Haaparanta line crosses the border to Haaparanna. In addition, the Röytä
port line connects the Tornio railway yard with the Röytä port railway yard. The
four-kilometer-long four-track line connecting the Tornio and Haaparanta railway
stations enables traffic between the stations with both Swedish and Finnish
rolling stock (Finland uses a wider gauge than Sweden). Passenger traffic in
Tornio was suspended due to the poor condition and location of the Tornio-North
stop in 2004. The Tornio-East stop was built in a safer location in 2008. Today,
we know how to manufacture rolling stock that can quickly change its track gauge
without changing bogies, when the stock is driven through a weather-protected
gauge conversion hall from one gauge to another. Such technology has not yet
been tried in rail traffic between Finland, Sweden and Norway.
The port
of Tornio is located on Röytä Island, in the southern part of the city. In
winter, an icebreaker enables free sea connections and the port can be used all
year round. The port's traffic consists mainly of Outokumpu Oyj's stainless
steel exports. There is no passenger traffic in the port. In 2007, 345 ships
visited the port and the port's freight traffic was 1.6 million tonnes.
Kemi–Tornio Airport is located in Keminmaa, approximately 18 kilometres from
Tornio. Finncomm Airlines offers direct flights to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.
95,887 passengers passed through the airport in 2008.
Tornio is home to four fire departments: the Tornio professional fire department of the Lapland Rescue Service, the Outokumpu steelworks fire department, the Tornio VPK, and the Karungi VPK. In addition, the Lapland Police Department has a police station in the municipality.