The VIII District, also known as Port Arthur (or Portsa in colloquial
Finnish), is one of the central
district
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
s of
Turku
Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
. It is located on the west side of the
river Aura, between ''Puistokatu'' and the
IX District (''Länsiranta''). The district consists mostly of wooden houses, separated by narrow streets paved with
cobblestone
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...
s. It is widely considered one of the most beautiful residential districts in the whole of Finland, and has received an award to that effect in 2001. Port Arthur is one of the most expensive districts in Turku to live in.
The district was originally built in the 1900s as a residential area for workers. It was inadvertently named after the city of Port Arthur (now
Lüshunkou,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
) that
Imperial Russia
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* ...
(which ruled Finland at the time) lost during the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
in 1904. Local children asked the workmen what they were doing; their reply of "rebuilding Port Arthur" caught on among the citizenry.
[Vismanen, Pirjo]
Kuppis! Ja päälle pikku hali
''Turun Sanomat
is the leading regional newspaper of the region of Southwest Finland. It is published in the region's capital, Turku and the third most widely read morning newspaper in Finland after ''Helsingin Sanomat'' and ''Aamulehti''.
History and profile ...
'' 12 May 2007. Accessed on 29 June 2008.
Attempts by the city council to build
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...
s in the area in the 1970s failed due to strong opposition from locals. The area is nowadays protected.
In addition to the residential area of Port Arthur, the district contains the
Michael's Church, and the ''Kakola'' hill.
The district has a population of 4,760 () and an annual population growth rate of -1.55%. 9.26% of the district's population are under 15 years old, while 19.10% are over 65. The district's
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
makeup is 91.07% Finnish, 7.06%
Swedish, and 1.87% other.
See also
*
Districts of Turku The city of Turku, Finland is divided into nine wards (''see Wards of Turku''), which in turn are divided into 78 non-governmental districts ( in Finnish, in Swedish). These are composed of individual suburbs, and in the very centre of the city ...
*
Districts of Turku by population
This is a list of the districts of Turku, Finland, sorted by population {{As of, 2004, lc=on.
# Runosmäki ''(Runosbacken)'', 10,269
# Varissuo ''(Kråkkärret)'', 8,760
# VII, 8,749
# Nummi ''(Nummis)'', 7,011
# VI, 6,187
# I, 6,177
# VII ...
References
External links
#8
{{WesternFinland-geo-stub