Tornio is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of 1,348.83 square kilometres, of which 161.59 km2 is water. It borders the Swedish municipality of Haparanda (in Finnish: Haaparanta).
In spite of being a border city Tornio is unilingually Finnish 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.
Culture
Attractions
- Tornio Valley Museum
- Subject Art Museum – An active meeting place for the visual arts. Available e.g. collection exhibitions, rotating exhibitions, workshops and lectures.
- Lapin Kulta Brewery – The brewery was founded in 1873 and was the oldest industrial plant in Northern Finland. The brewery was closed in 2010.
- Children’s Traffic Park – The activity is mainly for children under the age of 10 and their parents.
- Tornio Church – The church was consecrated in 1686.
- Alatornio Church
- Karung Church
- Tornio Orthodox Church
- Shopping center Rajalla – På Gränsen
- Tornio water tower
- Duudsonit Activity Park TornioHaparanda
Economy and infrastructure
Tornio is an industrial city. The most significant employer in Tornio is Outokumpu , a stainless steel manufacturing Tornio steel plant employs more than 2 000 people. Thanks to Outokumpu, a strong metal and workshop concentration has developed in the Torpi industrial area. Outokumpu has recently planned to expand its ferrochrome plant in Tornio to create 100 new jobs.
Until August 2010, the more than 130-year-old beer and soft drink factory that produced Hartwall’s (formerly Lapin Kulta) internationally known Lapin Kulta beer operated on Suensaari in Tornio . At its best, the brewery had 200-300 employees and in the last phase about 100. In 2016, Elämystehdas Lappari was established on the factory property, where several different players operate, such as Club Theater and Tornio Brewery .
Transportation
Tornio is the beginning of two highways . Only 16 kilometers of highway 29 to Keminmaa offers fast transport connections to Kemi. The highway is the northernmost highway in the world and most of it is called Perämerentie . Highway 21 follows the Swedish border to Lake Kilpisjärvi . European Route 8 follows Highways 21 and 29. European Route 4 starts in Tornio; the road is only a few hundred meters on the Finnish side and continues through the whole of Sweden to Helsingborg in the south. 18,000 vehicles pass across the Tornio-Haparanda border every day, making it the busiest in the Nordic countries .
The railways from Tornio lead in three different directions: the Oulu – Tornio line runs along the shores of the Bay of Bothnia to Oulu , the Kolari line along the Tornio River to Kolari and the Tornio – Haparanda line crosses the border to Haparanda . In addition, the Röytä harbor track connects the Tornio railway yard to the Röytä harbor yard . The four-kilometer-long four-track railway connecting the Tornio and Haparanda railway stations enables traffic between the stations with both Swedish and Finnish rolling stock (Finland has a larger track gauge than Sweden).
Kemi-Tornio Airport is located in Keminmaa, about 18 kilometers from Tornio. The airline Finncomm Airlines offers direct flights to Helsinki-Vantaa airport . 95,887 passengers passed through the airport in 2008.
