Pori

Pori ("Björneborg" in Swedish) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The centre of the city it located some 15 km 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 76,205 (28.2.2007) and covers an area of 511.88 km² of which 8.71 km² is water. The population density is 151.4 inhabitants per km². The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Pori is the 10th 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.

Politics

Pori is a strong foothold for the Social Democratic Party. In 2004 the party got 32.4% of the votes while the second largest party, National Coalition Party, got 24.8% 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 98% of the population has Finnish as their first language, and about 2% has either Arabic, French, German, Russian or Swedish as their first language. There is a small minority of about 0.5% 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.

People

*Eija Kantola - Finnish singer born 1966
*Veli-Pekka Ketola - Finnish ice hockey player born 1948
*Antti Sumiala - Finnish footballer born 1974
*Timo Koivusalo - Finnish actor and film director born 1963
*Olli Lindholm - Finnish singer of the band Yö. Born 1964
*Visa Mäkinen - Finnish film director born 1945
*Pertti Neumann - Finnish singer of the band Dingo in the 80's. Born 1959
*Kai Niemi - Motorcycle speedway rider born 1955
*Selim Palmgren - Finnish composer born 1878
*Sara Virtanen - Finnish photographer born 1988
*Jukka Syrenius - Finnish blues musician born 1951
*Leo-Pekka Tähti - Finnish paraathletic with two olympic golds. Born 1983
*Kielo Tommila - Finnish actress born 1950
*Jorma Uotinen - Finnish dancer born 1950

Sister cities

* , since 1967
* , since 1973
* , since 1975
* , since 1990
* , since 1956
* , since 1965
* , since 1968
* , since 1940
* , since 1952

Trivia

The asteroid 1499 Pori was named after the city by its discoverer, the Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä.

Transmitter facility

Near Pori there is a broadcasting facility for medium-wave and short-wave broadcasting by the Digita. The medium-wave transmitter uses a 185 m (607 ft) guyed mast as an aerial.

External links

* [http://www.pori.fi/ The City of Pori] - official site