Koskikeskus (literally ''Rapids Center'' in Finnish) is a neighbourhood in the
Tuira area in the city of
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. The neighbourhood is located in the estuary of the river
Oulujoki
Oulujoki is a river in Oulu province, Finland. Its name in Finnish means literally "Oulu River" ( sv, Ule älv), originally in old Northern Ostrobothnian dialect literally "Flood River". Its origin is Oulujärvi and its watershed area covers a ...
.
The
Tuira Bridges Tuira may refer to:
*Tuira River, a river in Panama
*Tuira, Oulu
Tuira is a district of the city of Oulu, Finland. It is located north of city centre across the Oulujoki River. After the first bridges over Oulujoki connecting Tuira with Oulu wer ...
in Koskikeskus connect the
city centre
A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
and
Tuira neighbourhoods. The first bridges through the delta were built in late 1860s.
Koskikeskus is built on the site of the former Merikoski rapids, which were lost when the
Merikoski hydroelectric power station was built in the 1940s. The neighbourhood is made up of several islands of which only the artificial island of Toivoniemi is permanently inhabited. Other notable islands in the neighbourhood are Linnansaari, Raatinsaari and Kuusisaari.
The ruins of the
Oulu Castle
Oulu Castle ( sv, Uleåborgs slott,The original 16th-century Swedish name contains the Swedish word for castle twice as both "borg" and "slott" mean castle. This is likely because the probable name "Uleåborg" (Oulu Castle) of the short-lived 14th ...
are located on the Linnansaari island. The former Oulu Marine School's observatory has been built on the ruins in 1875. Nowadays the observatory is used as a café.
Most of the Raatinsaari island is taken by the Raatti Sports Centre, which includes the
Raatti Stadium
Raatti Stadium ( fi, Raatin stadion) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Koskikeskus neighbourhood of Oulu, Finland. It is currently used mostly for football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ba ...
, a practice field and the Raatti indoor swimming pool. The
Qstock
Qstock is an annual two-day rock festival held at the end of July in Oulu, Finland.
The festival lineup includes some of the biggest names in both domestic and international music scene, regardless of the genre. The first Qstock festival was orga ...
rock festival has been held in the Kuusisaari island from 2003. In recent years the festival area has expanded to include a part of the Raatinsaari island too.
References
External links
* {{Commonscat-inline, Koskikeskus