Turku and Pori Province
| Turku and Pori Province | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County of Sweden 1634–1809 Province of Grand Duchy of Finland 1809–1917 Province of independent Finland 1917–1997 | |||||||||
| 1634–1997 | |||||||||
Coat of arms
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Map of Turku and Pori Province (1996) | |||||||||
| Capital | Turku | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1 January 1993 | 20,721 km2 (8,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1 January 1993 | 731,786 | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1634 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1997 | ||||||||
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Turku and Pori Province, or Åbo and Björnborg County, was an administrative province (Finnish: lääni, Swedish: län) in Finland. It existed as part of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1634 to 1809, the Grand Duchy of Finland under the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917, and the Republic of Finland from 1917 until the province was abolished in 1997.
The province was first established in the 1634 Instrument of Government as the Province of North and South Finland, with its seat in Turku (Åbo). It was formed by uniting the slottsläns corresponding to Finland Proper, Satakunta and the Åland Islands. In 1641, Satakunta was briefly separated to form Pori Province with the seat in Pori (Björneborg), but the division proved short-lived, and in 1646 the areas were reunited as Turku and Pori Province.
During the 18th century, administrative adjustments reduced the size of the province. In Gustav III's great provincial reform of 1775, most of Upper Satakunta was transferred to the newly established Vaasa Province.
When Finland was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1809 and reorganized as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, the provincial administration remained largely unchanged, and Turku and Pori Province continued under Russian rule. Under Swedish rule, the governor's title had been landshövding, but in 1837 it was changed to guvernör.
In 1918, after Finland’s independence, Åland was separated from the province and made into a distinct autonomous territory, while some municipalities of Satakunta were transferred to Häme Province. Proposals to divide Turku and Pori Province into separate provinces of Finland Proper and Satakunta were considered in the early 1980s but never realized.
In 1997, Turku and Pori Province was merged with the northern part of the Häme Province and with the provinces of Vaasa and Central Finland to form the new Western Finland Province. All Finnish provinces were abolished on 1 January 2010.