I kaupunginosa, Turku — Area Guide & Where to Stay

The cathedral towers over it all. Turun tuomiokirkko, mother church of Finland, is the great monument of the central district, and below it the Luostarinmäen museokortteli keeps a whole block of old wooden houses as an open-air museum. Museums run deep here.

The Aboa Vetus Ars Nova joins medieval excavations to modern art, the Turun taidemuseo holds the city's art collection, the Sibelius-museo gathers instruments and the composer's memory, and the Apteekkimuseo fills the old Qwenselin talo, one of the oldest houses in the district. Few quarters carry so much. Together they make I kaupunginosa the cultural heart of the Varsinais-Suomi capital.

Here Turku began. The first city district grew around the Turun tuomiokirkko, raised in the Middle Ages as the seat of the Finnish church, and the old streets below it formed the original town. The cathedral set the centre.

Around it the city built its houses, among them the Qwenselin talo that now holds the Apteekkimuseo, while the Luostarinmäen museokortteli survived later fires to keep a quarter of wooden Turku intact. Over centuries the museums gathered: the Turun taidemuseo, the Sibelius-museo, the Aboa Vetus Ars Nova on its medieval cellars. I kaupunginosa stayed the historic core of the Varsinais-Suomi capital.

I kaupunginosa forms the central part of Turku in south-western Finland, the historic heart of the city, where the Turun tuomiokirkko stands above the old streets and the Luostarinmäen museokortteli preserves a whole quarter of wooden houses below the cathedral.