Tornio (; sv, Torneå; sme, Duortnus ; smn, Tuárnus) is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Lapland, Finland Lapland ( fi, Lappi ; se, Lappi; smn, Laapi; sv, Lappland; la, Lapponia, links=no) is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the region of North O ...

. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with

Haparanda Haparanda (; fi, Haaparanta, , aspen shore or bank) is a locality and the seat of Haparanda Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. It is adjacent to Tornio, Finland. Haparanda had a population of 4,856 in 2010, out of a municipal total of 10,2 ...

on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is water. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

is , with a total population of (). Tornio is unilingually

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

with a negligible number of native Swedish speakers, although this does not count vast numbers of bilinguals who speak Swedish as a second language, with an official target of universal working bilingualism for both border municipalities.

History

The

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

of the

Torne river The Torne, also known as the Tornio ( fi, Tornionjoki, sv, Torne älv, , se, Duortneseatnu, fit, Tornionväylä), is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. For approximately half of its length, it defines the border between these two countr ...

has been inhabited since the end of the last ice age, and there are currently (1995) 16 settlement sites known in the area, similar to those found in

Vuollerim Vuollerim () is a locality situated in Jokkmokk Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 732 inhabitants in 2010. Notable people * Zemya Hamilton *Jakob Hellman * Jokkmokks-Jokke * Birgitta Svendén *Lars-Göran Nilsson Lars-Göran Birger ...

(). The Swedish part of the region is not far from the oldest permanent settlement site found in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. A former hypothesis that this region was uninhabited and colonised from the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

onward has now been abandoned. Until the 19th century, inhabitants of the surrounding countryside spoke

, and

Kemi Sámi Kemi Sámi was a Sámi language that was originally spoken in the southernmost district of Finnish Lapland as far south as the Sámi siidas around Kuusamo. A complex of local variants which had a distinct identity from other Sámi dialects, but ...

, a language of the Eastern Sami group, while those of the town were mainly Swedish-speaking. The name 'Tornio' is an old Finnish word meaning "war spear": the city is named after the river. To Swedish it was borrowed as ''Torneå'' after ''Torne å'', an alternative name of the river. The town received its charter from the King

Gustavus Adolphus Gustavus Adolphus (9 December Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">N.S_19_December.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/now ...

on May 12, 1621, and was officially founded on the island of

Suensaari Suensaari is a Finnish peninsula in the river Torne. Although the 6 km2 peninsula is linked to Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's forma ...

. At that time, it was the northernmost city in the world. The charter was granted 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 Sweden. Despite the lively trade with Lapland and overseas, the population of the town remained stable for hundreds of years at little over 500. During the 18th century Tornio was visited by several expeditions from Central Europe which came to explore the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

. The most notable expedition (1736–1737) was led by a member of the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

Pierre Louis Maupertuis Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (; ; 1698 – 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the ...

, who came to take

meridian arc In geodesy and navigation, a meridian arc is the curve between two points on the Earth's surface having the same longitude. The term may refer either to a segment of the meridian, or to its length. The purpose of measuring meridian arcs is to de ...

measurements along the

Meänmaa (), or sometimes Torne Valley or Torne River Valley ( fi, Tornionlaakso; sv, Tornedalen) lies at the border of Sweden and Finland. It is named after the Torne River flowing through the valley and into the Gulf of Bothnia. Geographically the t ...

which would show that the globe is flattened towards the poles. The church

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

at Tornio was one of the landmarks used by Maupertuis in his measurements. The church was constructed in 1686 by Matti Joosepinpoika Härmä. The Lapland trade on which Tornio depended started to decline in the 18th century, and the harbour had to be moved downriver twice as a result of the rising of the land, 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 Muonio (previously called ''Muonionniska'', se, Muoná) is a municipality of Finland. The town is located in far northern Finland above the Arctic Circle on the country's western border, within the area of the former Lappi (Lapland) province. T ...

and Tornio rivers, splitting Lapland into two parts, with deleterious effects on trade. Tornio ended up on the Russian side of the border by special request of the Russian czar. The Swedes developed the village of Haaparanta (present day

) on their side of the border, to balance the loss of Tornio, and Tornio became unilingually Finnish. A Federley Tornea 1908

During the Russian period, Tornio was a sleepy

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

town. Trade only livened up during the

Åland War The Åland War ( fi, Oolannin sota, sv, Åländska kriget) is the Finnish term for the operations of a British-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crime ...

(part of the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

) and the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when Tornio became an important border crossing for goods and people. During the First World War, Tornio and Haparanda had the only rail link connecting the Russians to their Western allies. It was also through Tornio that

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

returned to Russia from exile in Switzerland in March 1917. After the

independence of Finland Finland declared its independence on 6 December 1917. The formal Declaration of Independence was only part of the long process leading to the independence of Finland. History Proclamation of Empress Elizabeth (1742) The subject of an independ ...

in 1917 Tornio lost its garrison and experienced further decline, although its population increased steadily. The town played no role of importance in the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

, but was the scene of some fierce street fighting at the onset of the

Lapland War During World War II, the Lapland War ( fi , Lapin sota; sv, Lapplandskriget; german: Lapplandkrieg) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. ...

between Finland and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The rapid liberation of the town by Finnish forces may have saved it from being burned down like so many other towns in Lapland. As a result, the wooden church from 1686 can still be seen today. After World War II, the town created new employment built on the success of the local

Lapin Kulta Lapin Kulta (in English, Lapland Gold) is a Finnish beer brand. Lapin Kulta was also the name of the brewery in the Lapland town of Tornio, where the beer was originally brewed. The brewery was founded in 1873 under the name Torneå Bryggeri Ak ...

brewery and the

Outokumpu Outokumpu Oyj is a group of international companies headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, employing 10,600 employees in more than 30 countries. Outokumpu is the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest producer in the A ...

stainless steel mill. Tourism based on the border has also been a growing industry. The town is a centre of education for Western Lapland, with a

vocational college A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

and a

university of applied sciences A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

. Tornio and Haparanda have a history as

twin cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

, and are currently set to merge under the names TornioHaparanda and HaparandaTornio. A new city centre is under construction on the international border and several municipal services are shared.Rajalla – På Gränsen
The towns also share a common

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

course, situated astride the border. The

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

store in Haparanda has signposting in Finnish as well as in Swedish, and all prices are signposted in two currencies.

Sports

Tornion Palloveikot Tornion Palloveikot, ''Torneå PV'' or ''ToPV'' is a Finnish sports club in Tornio, founded in 1935. The club is mainly active playing bandy but also floorball and used to have a section for association football too. The club's home games are nowa ...

is a

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

club which plays in the

Bandyliiga The Bandyliiga (; 'Bandy League') is the top level of men's bandy in Finland. The league was founded in 1908 as the Jääpallon SM-sarja ('Bandy Finnish Championship Series') and the present name has been used since the 1991–92 season. Bandyl ...

and has become Finnish bandy champion several times. They play their home matches in Haparanda, just on the other side of the Swedish border, which was the venue for games at the

2001 Bandy World Championship The 2001 Bandy World Championship for men was played in Haparanda, Sweden, and Oulu, Finland, on March 24–April 1, 2001. The main arena was Raksila Artificial Ice Rink Pakkalan kenttä. Russia became champions. Group stage Final four Refere ...

. Tornion Pallo -47 is the main

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club in the city.

Teemu Tainio Teemu Mikael Tainio (born 27 November 1979) is a Finnish football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of FC Haka. Tainio began his career with his local club, TP-47, before moving to FC Haka in 1996. A year later, he moved to ...

, a football player and manager, was born in Tornio.

Jesse Puljujärvi Jesse Puljujärvi (; born 7 May 1998) is a Swedish-born Finnish professional ice hockey player for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Rated as a top prospect, Puljujärvi was drafted fourth overall by the Oilers in the 2016 ...

, an ice hockey player, lived his childhood in Tornio.

Ville Pokka Ville Pokka (born June 3, 1994) is a Finnish professional ice hockey defenseman, who currently plays for Färjestad BK of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Playing career Pokka played with Kärpät in the SM-Liiga during the 2010–11 season. H ...

, an ice hockey player, was born and raised in Tornio.

Climate

Tornio has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

( Dfc) that is slightly tempered in winter by its proximity to the sea, but retains warm continental summers that are quite short. The weatherbox below is from neighbouring city Haparanda and operated by the

Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute ( sv, Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut, abbreviated SMHI) is a Government agency in Sweden and operates under the Ministry of the Environment. SMHI has expertise within the ...

. Despite the fact that Tornio experiences

polar day The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, th ...

for 13 days between 15 and 27 June, it does not experience

polar night The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnig ...

Transport

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

occurs at Tornio between the Finnish and Swedish railway systems. A

bogie exchange Bogie exchange is a system for operating railway wagons on two or more gauges to overcome difference in the track gauge. To perform a bogie exchange, a car is converted from one gauge to another by removing the bogies or trucks (the chassis cont ...

and

variable gauge axle A variable gauge system allows railway vehicles in a train to travel across a break of gauge between two railway networks with different track gauges. For through operation, a train must be equipped with special bogies holding variable gauge wh ...

track gauge changing facility are provided. Tornio has a passenger service provided from Tornio-East station by Finnish Railways VR three days a week overnight.

Kemi-Tornio Airport Kemi-Tornio Airport (; fi, Kemi-Tornion lentoasema; sv, Kemi-Torneå flygplats) is an airport in Kemi, Finland. The airport is located near the district of Lautiosaari, east of the Kemijoki (Kemi River), north of Kemi city centre and east of T ...

is located in

Kemi Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and to Rovani ...

, about south-east from Tornio city centre. The

Port of Tornio The Port of Tornio (Finnish: ''Tornion satama'', Swedish: ''Torneå hamn''), also known as the Port of Röyttä, is a cargo port located in the city of Tornio, Finland, at the end of the Bothnian Bay and close to Finland's border with Sweden. ...

is a cargo port adjacent to the

steelworks A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

. Highway 29 (part of the

European route E8 The European route E8 is a European route that goes from Tromsø, Norway to Turku, Finland. The length of the route is . * E8: Tromsø – Nordkjosbotn – Skibotn – Kilpisjärvi – Kaaresuvanto – Muonio – Tornio – Keminmaa – Kemi ...

) between

Keminmaa Keminmaa (until 1979 Kemin maalaiskunta) ( smn, Kiemâeennâm; sms, Ǩeeʹmmjânnam) is a municipality of Finland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Geography Neighbou ...

and Tornio is the world's northernmost

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

. Tornio is also the northern terminus of

European route E4 European route E4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, with a total length of . The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is only long. The Swedish part traverses most of Sweden ex ...

Notable individuals

Aarne Heikinheimo Aarne Silvio Heikinheimo (March 20, 1894 – January 24, 1938) was a Finnish Major General. He is well known for his service in the Finnish Civil War against the Red Guards. Biography Early life Heikinheimo was born on March 20, 1894, in Tornio. ...

, Jäger Major-General * ,

player * , writer, art critic and painter *

Heikki Hyvönen Heikki is a Finland, Finnish and Estonia, Estonian male given name. It derives from a medieval vernacular form of the name Henrik. Notable people with the name include: *Heikki Aho (footballer) (born 1983), Finnish footballer *Heikki A. Alikoski ...

, bandy player * , gymnast and

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player * , businessman *

Henri Sillanpää Henri Sillanpää (born 4 June 1979) is a Finland, Finnish football coach and a former professional association football, footballer who is currently working as an assistant manager of Vaasan Palloseura, VPS. International career He made his de ...

, footballer *

Ivar Lantto Ivar Fredrik Lantto (15 August 1862 – 19 November 1938) was a Finland, Finnish schoolteacher, farmer and politician, born in Tornio. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1908 to 1909 and from 1916 to 1919, representing the Centre Par ...

, schoolteacher, farmer and politician * , forester and long-term director of the Forestry Department in Lapland *

, ice hockey player * Joni Myllykoski, ice hockey player * Juho-Teppo Berg, footballer * , ice hockey league judge * Jussi Hakasalo, footballer *

Jussi Kanervo Jussi Aleksi Samuli Kanervo (born 1 February 1993) is a Finnish hurdler. He won silver in the 400 m hurdles at the 2015 European U23 Championships and bronze in the 110 m hurdles at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. Biography Kanervo was born in To ...

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

* , clergyman and writer *

Kalle Palander Kalle Markus Palander (born May 2, 1977 in Tornio) is a Finland, Finnish retired alpine skiing, alpine skier, the most successful male Finn ever in the sport. Career In 1999 Palander won the Alpine World Skiing Championships, world championship ...

, alpine skier * , writer *

Leena Huhta Leena is a feminine given name. It is a variant spelling of Lina (name), Lina and Lena (name), Lena. It is a direct Quranic Arabic name, meaning "young palm tree", or figuratively "tender, young, delicate". In Persian, it means "light", "a ray of ...

, sprinter * Läjä Äijälä, musician, comics artist and poet * * , journalist, writer and screenwriter * , ''Jäger'' lieutenant * Pasi Hiekkanen, football goalkeeper and bandy player * , architect *

Saku Mäenalanen Saku Mäenalanen (born 29 May 1994) is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward who is currently under contract with the SCL Tigers of the National League (NL). Mäenalanen was selected by the Nashville Predators in the fifth round (125th overa ...

, ice hockey player *

Sari Eero A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std= ...

, athlete * , politician *

, footballer * Tuuli Matinsalo, aerobics athlete *

, ice hockey player * , hairdresser * , musician *

Ville Pörhölä Frans Wilhelm "Ville" Pörhölä (originally Horneman, 24 December 1897 – 28 November 1964) was a Finnish athlete who competed in shot put, discus throw, hammer throw and weight throw. Pörhölä won the gold medal in shot put at the 1920 Sum ...

, athlete, Olympic Winner

Twin cities

Tornio's closest economic and cultural ties are with its immediate neighbour: *

, Sweden Tornio also has links with: *

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

, United Kingdom *

Hammerfest Hammerfest (; sme, Hámmerfeasta ) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. Hammerfest is the northernmost town in the world with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hammerfe ...

, Norway *

Ikast Ikast is a Denmark, Danish town in the Mid Jutland Region (''Midtjylland''). It is the seat of Ikast-Brande Municipality since 2007. It was the seat of the former Ikast Municipality. Geography The town is situated in the middle of Jutland. The ...

, Denmark * Kirovsk, Russia *

Szekszárd Szekszárd (, formerly also ''Szegzárd''; hr, Seksar; german: Sechshard or ; sr, Сексард) is a small city in southern Hungary and the capital of Tolna County. By population, Szekszárd is the smallest county capital in Hungary; by area ...

, Hungary *

Vetlanda Vetlanda () is a locality and the seat of Vetlanda Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 13,050 inhabitants in 2010. History Vetlanda was still nothing more than a village for several centuries. With the 1840s population boom in Småland ...

, Sweden *

Pánd Pánd is a village in Pest county, Hungary. Location Pánd is located between the towns of Káva and Tápióbicske along the minor road connecting Nagykáta and Monor. It is almost entirely located in the valleys of Őr Hill and Dobos Hill. ...

, Hungary

Gallery

File:Tornion joki winter 2015.jpg, Torne River in the winter Image:Tornio Orth Church.JPG, Orthodox Church, Tornio File:Suensaari school Sep2008.jpg, Suensaari School, constructed in the early 1900s originally a Russian barracks. File:Outokumpu mill in Tornio May2009 001.jpg, Outokumpu steel mill

References

External links

*
Town of Tornio
– Official website

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Finland Populated coastal places in Finland Divided cities Finland–Sweden border crossings Grand Duchy of Finland Port cities and towns in Finland Populated places established in 1621 1621 establishments in Sweden