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Pori
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Pori is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The centre of the city it located some from the coast of Gulf of Bothnia, at the estuary (the largest of those in Finland) of Kokemäenjoki river. Pori is part of the province of Western Finland and is the most important town in the Satakunta region.
The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water.
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Encyclopedia
Pori is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The centre of the city it located some from the coast of Gulf of Bothnia, at the estuary (the largest of those in Finland) of Kokemäenjoki river. Pori is part of the province of Western Finland and is the most important town in the Satakunta region.
The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Pori is the largest city in Finland, and the 7th largest urban area.
The Neo-Gothic Juselius Mausoleum, located in the Käppärä cemetery in central Pori, was built in 1903 by the wealthy industrialist F.A. Juselius for his daughter Sigrid who died when she was only 11 years old. The Mausoleum was designed by the architect Josef Stenbäck. The Mausoleum originally had frescoes painted by artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, but these decayed after a short time. The frescoes were restored by Akseli's son Jorma Gallen-Kallela using his father's sketches.
Pori is known, among other things, for the sand beaches of Yyteri and for hosting Pori Jazz, an annual international jazz festival.
Name
The name Pori comes from it's original swedish name Björneborg's last part, borg (castle), which is pronounced in a similar way. The swedish name Björneborg
means Bear castle, and the latin name Arctopolis means Bear city.
History
River had a key role in the creation of Pori. Sailing in the Kokemäki river had become harder and harder since the 1300's. The significance of Kokemäki and Ulvila decreased, when ships couldn't get up the river anymore. In the 1500's, the situation had become so severe, that John III wanted to found a new harbour- and market town, that was closer to a sea.
The location and idea were good, but the residents were missing. The Bourgeois of Rauma and Ulvila were ordered to move to Helsinki, which had just been founded.
The bourgeoisie however didn't enjoy living in Helsinki, and after numerous pleas they got a permission to move to their previous residences, except those from Ulvila, whom had a new migration order waiting for them in their homes. They were ordered to migrate to the newly found City of Pori. In March 8, 1558 John III gave the charter of Pori, which read: "Because we have seen that it would be best to build a strong market town alongside the sea, and because we can't find any place suitable for fortifying in Ulvila, we have chosen another location at Pori."
At the time Pori had around 300 involuntary residents. However they soon started finding good sides of their new home, profitable location, among other things.
Politics
Pori is a relatively strong foothold for the Social Democratic Party. In 2008 the party got 29.8% of the votes while the second largest party, National Coalition Party, got 26.1% of the votes. The mayor of Pori is Aino-Maija Luukkonen, who was selected to run the city in 2004 after the former mayor, Martti Sinisalmi, retired from the post.
Demographics
More than of the population has Finnish as their first language, and about has either Arabic, French, German, Russian or Swedish as their first language. There is a small minority of about of Swedish speakers in the city. There is a Swedish School and a Swedish Culture Club that are aimed on serving the Finland-Swedish minority in the Satakunta region.
Population development
Population peaked in the mid-1970s, when it was over 80 000. After that the population declined, and it has been the last years steadily a little bit over 76 000. Population jump in 1950 can be explained with annexing.
- 1910 – 13,482
- 1910 – 13,981
- 1920 – 13,928
- 1930 – 15,966
- 1940 – 18,230
- 1950 – 43,306
| 1960 – 52,542 1970 – 72,983 1974 – 80,443 1978 – 79,815 1980 – 78,405 1984 – 78,933 | 1988 – 76,789 1990 – 76,357 1994 – 76,561 1998 – 76,375 2000 – 75,994 2004 – 76,152 | 2005 – 76,144 2006 – 76,181 2007 – 76,234 2008 – 76,436 |
Source
People
Sister cities
Bremerhaven, Germany, since 1967
Eger, Hungary, since 1973
Kolobrzeg, Poland, since 1975
Mâcon, France, since 1990
Stralsund, Germany, since 1968
Trivia
The asteroid 1499 Pori was named after the city by its discoverer, the Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä.
Transmitter facility
There is a broadcasting facility near Pori for medium-wave and short-wave broadcasting managed by Digita. The medium-wave transmitter uses a 185 m (607 ft) guyed mast as an aerial.
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