Tornio is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland.
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13 Facts About Tornio
2.
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.
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3.
Name 'Tornio' is an old Finnish word meaning "war spear": the city is named after the river.
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4.
The charter was granted in recognition of Tornio being the hub of all trade in Lapland throughout the 16th century.
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5.
The church spire at Tornio was one of the landmarks used by Maupertuis in his measurements.
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6.
Lapland trade on which Tornio depended started to decline in the 18th century, and the harbour had to be moved downriver twice as a result of the rising of the land, which made the river too shallow for navigation.
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7.
The border was drawn through the deepest channel of the Muonio and Tornio rivers, splitting Lapland into two parts, with deleterious effects on trade.
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8.
Tornio ended up on the Russian side of the border by special request of the Russian czar.
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9.
Trade only livened up during the Aland War and the First World War, when Tornio became an important border crossing for goods and people.
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10.
Tornio has a subarctic climate that is slightly tempered in winter by its proximity to the sea, but retains warm continental summers that are quite short.
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11.
Tornio has a passenger service provided from Tornio-East station by Finnish Railways VR three days a week overnight.
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12.
Kemi-Tornio Airport is located in Kemi, about 18 kilometres south-east from Tornio city centre.
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