The VIII District, also known as Port Arthur (or Portsa in colloquial

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

), 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, municipa ...

s of

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. 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 cobblestones. 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) that Imperial Russia (which ruled Finland at the time) lost during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

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'' 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, i ...

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 human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

makeup is 91.07% Finnish, 7.06%

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, and 1.87% other.

References

External links

#8 {{WesternFinland-geo-stub