Twin Cities of Turku

The City of Turku has an extensive network of thirteen twin cities in Europe. Twin city relationships offer great possibilities for co-operation within various fields. Additionally, twin city activities enable the comparing of good practices and operations models, as well as the promoting of the internationalization of NGOs and education institutions.

Turku co-operates closely with its Nordic twin cities and the twin cities from around the Baltic Sea, among others. For example, the network of Bergen, Gothenburg (Göteborg), Aarhus (Århus), and Turku gathers around a changing theme in one of the cities every other year. In 2015 the network will meet in Aarhus.

St. Petersburg and Turku also organize a twin city event every other year. In 2013 both cities organized festivities that included culture but also a strong emphasis on livelihood for the celebration of the 60th year of their twin city relations. In 2015 it will again be time for Turku to present itself in St. Petersburg.

Twin cities of Turku

1946 Bergen (Norway), Gothenburg (Sweden), Aarhus (Denmark)
1953 St. Petersburg (Russia)  – twin city status suspended for the time being
1958 Gdansk (Poland), Constanza (Romania), Rostock (Germany)
1963 Varna (Bulgaria)
1967 Cologne (Germany)
1971 Szeged (Hungary)
1976 Bratislava (Slovakia)
1992 Florence (Italy)
2008 Tartu (Estonia)
2022 Kharkiv (Ukraine)

Turku also has a valid co-operation agreement with the cities of Tallinn (Estonia) and Tianjin (People’s Republic of China).

Contact person:
Mika Akkanen (mika.akkanen@turku.fi)