Long before the modern university existed, Turku held Finland's only seat of higher learning. Queen Christina of Sweden founded the Royal Academy of Turku in 1640, the third university in the Swedish Empire and a direct descendant of the Turku Cathedral School established in 1276. For nearly two centuries, the Academy educated Finland's scholars and clergy. Then came 1809 and the Finnish War. Russia defeated Sweden, and Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Tsar. When the capital moved from Turku to Helsinki in 1812, the university survived - but not for long. The Great Fire of Turku in 1827 devastated the city, and the Royal Academy was transferred to Helsinki, where it eventually became the University of Helsinki. For the next ninety years, Turku had no university at all.

Independence changed everything. When Finland broke free from Russia in 1917, a surge of national identity swept the country. In 1918, the Swedish-speaking Abo Akademi opened in Turku, prompting Finnish intellectuals to ask: where is the university for the Finnish language? The answer came on Kalevala Day, February 28, 1920, when the University of Turku was founded as the first Finnish-language university in the nation's history. What made it remarkable was how it was funded - not by the state, but by donations from over 22,000 citizens. Teachers, farmers, and factory workers contributed what they could to establish this symbol of Finnish identity. The university began in borrowed rooms near the market square, a humble start for such grand ambitions.

By the 1950s, the university had outgrown its downtown quarters and moved to a hill on the city's outskirts. The locals called it Venalaismaki - Russian Hill - but the university's presence transformed both the landscape and the name. Today it is University Hill, a sprawling campus shared with Abo Akademi University and the Turku Science Park. The Main Building, constructed in the 1950s, anchors a complex that continues to expand. The Medisiina D building houses the Faculty of Medicine, while Turku University Hospital stands adjacent. The campus stretches to outlying research stations: a botanical garden on the island of Ruissalo and a marine research station on Seili. Satellite campuses in Pori and Rauma extend the university's reach across southwestern Finland.

With eight faculties and approximately 22,000 students, the University of Turku has grown into Finland's third-largest university. Its research spans remarkable distances. Through its membership in the University of the Arctic, students can study anywhere in the circumpolar region. The BIODAMAZ Project takes researchers to the Peruvian Amazon, partnering with institutions in Iquitos to study one of Earth's most biodiverse regions. The university's strategy focuses on six thematic areas: biodiversity, digital society, cultural memory, childhood development, medical innovation, and maritime studies. The last is particularly fitting for a city built around a river mouth on the Baltic Sea.

From the air, the university campus forms a distinct cluster northeast of Turku's medieval core. The Aura River winds through the city toward the sea, with the white cathedral tower marking the historic center. University Hill rises gently above the surrounding residential districts, its modern buildings and green spaces visible from cruising altitude on clear days. Turku Airport lies about 8 kilometers to the north, while the Gulf of Finland stretches south toward the Stockholm archipelago. The university that a free people built now educates the next generation of Finns, its motto still echoing across the century: free science, free people.