in 1827. The academy was founded on 26 March 1640 by Queen
Christina of Sweden at the proposal of Count
Per Brahe, on base of
Åbo Cathedral School (founded 1276). It was the third university in the
Swedish Empire, following
Uppsala University (founded 1477) and the
Academia Gustaviana (now the
University of Tartu in
Estonia) (1632). The first
printing shop in Finland was established at the academy in 1642. The printer was Peder Walde. Finland's first
scientific society, Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica, was founded on 1 November 1821 by
Carl Reinhold Sahlberg alongside eight mostly undergraduate biologists at the university. (1815). After the academy was moved to Helsinki, the building is since 1830 the seat of the Turku
Court of Appeal.
Turku (or Åbo in Swedish) was the largest city in Finland and among the three largest in Sweden, while under Swedish sovereignty. In 1809, Finland was ceded to
Russia and the capital of the new
Grand Duchy of Finland was relocated to Helsinki in 1812, as Turku was regarded as being too remote from
Saint Petersburg — and too near to
Stockholm. As a result of the
Great Fire of Turku of 1827, which devastated most of the city and also badly damaged the university, the government offices that had remained were finally moved to the new capital, and so also was the university. It continued in Helsinki, first as the
Imperial Alexander University in Finland, and, following Finland's independence in 1917, as the
University of Helsinki. There are two universities in Turku today: the
Swedish-speaking Åbo Akademi University (founded in 1918) and the
Finnish-speaking University of Turku (1920), which both sometimes may claim an academic tradition at the location since the 17th century, in spite of a break for almost a century. File:Turun akatemian vihkiäiset1.jpg|Inauguration of the Turku Academy Part 1 (
Albert Edelfelt, 1902, painting in the ballroom of the University of Helsinki) File:Turun akatemian vihkiäiset2.jpg|Inauguration of the Turku Academy Part 2 File:Turun akatemian vihkiäiset3.jpg|Inauguration of the Turku Academy Part 3 == See also ==