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Tornio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tornio (Northern Sami: Duortnus, Swedish: Torneå) is a municipality in Lapland, Finland. The municipality has a population of 22, 331(2006) and covers an area of 1,227.09 km² of which 43.85 km² is water. The population density is 18.8 inhabitants per km². It borders to the Swedish municipality of Haparanda (Finnish: Haaparanta). The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
The delta of the Tornio river has been inhabited since the end of the last ice age, and there are currently (1995) 16 group-dwelling places (boplatsvallar) known in the area, similar to those found in Vuollerim (ca 6000-5000 BC). The Swedish part of the region is not far from the currently (2004) known oldest stationary dwelling place found in Scandinavia. The theory that this region was unhabited and "colonised" from Viking Age onward is nowadays abandoned.
Until the 19th century, individuals speaking Kemi Sami inhabited the area, a language similar to Finnish although categorised as part of the Eastern Sami group.
Tornio was named after the river Tornio; (North Sami) Duortnosjávri, presumably from (Finnish) Tornionjärvi, tornio, "tower-y".
Torneå (se: "Torne river") got its town charter from the King of Sweden in 1621 and was officially founded on the island of Suensaari (fi: "Wolf Island", probably named after one of the main landowners of the past). The charter was in recognition of Tornio being the hub of all trade in Lapland throughout the 16th century. It was the largest merchant town in the North at the time and for some years ranked as the richest town in the Swedish realm. Despite the lively trade with Lapland and overseas, the number of inhabitants in the town remained stable at little over 500 persons for hundreds of years.
During the 18th century Tornio was visited by several expeditions from Central Europe who came to discover the Arctic. The most notable expedition (1736-1737) was led by a member of the Academie Française, Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, who came to do measurements along the Tornio river so as to prove that the earth is flattened towards the poles.
The Lapland trade on which Tornio depended started to decline in the 18th century and the Tornio harbour had to be moved downriver twice due to the rising of the land (post-glacial rebound), which made the river too shallow for navigation. However, the greatest blow to the wealth of the town came in the last war between Sweden and Russia in 1808, which saw the Russians capture and annex Finland. The border was drawn through the deepest channel of the Muonio and Tornio rivers, splitting Lapland in two parts, hurting the trade. Tornio town ended up on the Russian side of the border on special insistence by the Russian czar. The Swedes developed the village of Haaparanta (present day Haparanda) on their side of the border, to balance the loss of Tornio.
During the Russian period Tornio was a sleepy garrison town. Trade only livened up during the Crimean War and the First World War, when Tornio became an important border crossing for goods and people. During the First World War Tornio and Haparanda had the only rail link to connect the Russians to their Western allies.
After the independence of Finland in 1917 Tornio lost its garrison and saw further decline although its population increased steadily. The town played no role of importance in the Finnish Civil War, but was the scene of some fierce street fighting at the onset of the Lapland War between Finland and Nazi-Germany. The quick liberation of the town by the Finnish forces, probably saved it from being burned down like so many other towns in Lapland. As a result the beautiful wooden church from 1686 can still be admired today.
After World War II, the town created new employment with the success of the local brewery Lapin Kulta and the stainless steel factory Outokumpu. Tourism based on the border has been a growing industry too. The town is a centre of education for Western Lapland with a vocational college and a university of applied sciences.
Tornio and Haparanda have a history as twin cities, and are set to merge under the name EuroCity. A new city centre is under construction on the international border and several municipal services are shared. The towns also have a common golf course, situated astride the border. The new IKEA store in Haparanda has signposting in Finnish as well as in Swedish, and all prices are signposted in two currencies.
- Övertorneå (Sweden)