Turku

Finland’s oldest city, dated to 1229 because that is when Pope Gregory IX first mentioned Aboa in a bull. It was the most important city in the country under Swedish rule and became capital of the Grand Duchy in 1809, then lost the title three years later when Alexander I moved it to Helsinki. The great fire of 1827 finished the argument: the government institutions and the Royal Academy, founded in 1640, went east too, and the Academy became the University of Helsinki. Turku remains the regional capital, a port, and Finland’s declared Food Capital.