Kupittaa () is a district in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

, Finland. It is located on the eastern side of the city's centre, around the Kupittaa Park, the first landscaped park in a Finnish city. The district serves as a centre for recreation and business. Turku has recently planned a residential area for 750 residents on the premises of a former

HKScan HKFoods Plc () is a Finnish manufacturer of meat foods and products, but nowadays its product range also includes ready meals. It is based in Turku. In the 1990s and 2000s the company – by then known as HK Ruokatalo Oy – targeted the intern ...

sausage factory.

Name

The name ''Kupittaa'' may be associated with an old border and may be related to the word , a name for a boundary mark. Another theory is that it comes from the

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

word for a merchant, .

History

According to a version of the legend, the first

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

Finns were

baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

into Christianity by the

Bishop Henry Henry (; ; ; died 20 January 1156). was a medieval English clergyman. He came to Sweden with Cardinal Nicholas Breakspeare in 1153 and was most likely designated to be the new Archbishop of Uppsala, but the independent church province of Swed ...

at a spring in Kupittaa Park on

Midsummer Day Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of European or ...

in the year 1155. In the 18th century, the spring was used as a

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

facility.

Buildings

Most of the Turku Science Park business centre is located in Kupittaa. The centre is currently expanding around

Kupittaa railway station Kupittaa railway station (, ) is located in the Kupittaa district of Turku, Finland. The station is located about three kilometres from the Turku Central railway station in the immediate vicinity of the Turku Science Park. All trains between ...

, next to

Finnish national road 1 The Finnish national road 1 ( or ; ) is the main route between the major cities of Helsinki and Turku in southern Finland. It runs from Munkkiniemi in Helsinki to the VI District of Turku, and is part of the European route E18. The road is a m ...

(part of

European route E18 European route E18 runs between Craigavon, County Armagh, Craigavon in Northern Ireland and Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the ...

) between Helsinki and Turku.

Sport

The area hosts, among other things, numerous sports facilities, such as the

Veritas Stadion Kupittaa Football Stadium (; ), officially Veritas Stadion for sponsorship reasons since 2003, is a football stadium in Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwes ...

, a

Pesäpallo Pesäpallo (; ; , colloquially known in Finnish as pesis and also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other ...

(Finnish baseball) stadium, a

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

, a

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

, a skateboarding area and a

BMX BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the ea ...

track, and the Kupittaa open-air swimming pools. The

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

arena in the district was demolished in 2005. A new one was inaugurated in November 2006.

Veritas Stadion

The

is used by the association football team

FC Inter Turku Football Club International Turku, commonly referred to as Inter Turku () and colloquially known as Inter, is a Finnish professional association football, football club based in Turku that competes in the Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finni ...

, who comepete in the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

Turku Hippodrome

The Turku Hippodrome or Kupittaa Racecourse was a racetrack located north of Hippoxentie (next to the Veritas Stadion) between 1902 and 1973. Turku Hippos, founded in 1894, began planning the construction of its own track immediately after its establishment. A suitable place was found when the Turku Sniper Battalion moved its shooting range from Kupittaa to Kärsämäki in 1899. Ravirata started operating three years later. In the 1970s, Kupitta started to become too cramped for the operation of the race track. In addition, the old-fashioned track no longer met the requirements of the time. The last races at the Kupittaa racetrack were held on 9 September 1973. Today, only the kiosk building completed in 1948, remains of the Kupittaa racetrack. The wooden kiosk designed by architect Erik Bryggman is protected. There was also a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

track on the infield of the race track, where the first competition of the sport was held in Finland in 1949. It hosted significant events including a qualifying rounds of the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...

in 1955 and 1959 and the Finnish Speedway Championship in 1956, 1958, 1961, 1973 and 1976. In addition, there was also a greyhound track in the area, where the 1981 Nordic championships were organised. The Greyhound track ceased operations in the early 1980s.

Gallery

File:Residential buildings in Kupittaa 01.jpg, Residential buildings on the Lemminkäisenkatu street Image:Intelligate EuroCity and ICT.jpg, Buildings on the Joukahaisenkatu File:Lemminkäisenkatu in rainy weather.jpg, Lemminkäisenkatu street in rainy weather, near the Kupittaa sport hall

References

External links

{{coord, 60, 26, 42, N, 022, 17, 36, E, region:FI_type:city_source:kolossus-fiwiki, display=title Districts of Turku