The story of Turku Cathedral

Every day at noon, the sound of this cathedral's bells is broadcast on national radio. Turku Cathedral is the only medieval basilica in Finland. A wooden parish church once stood here on Unikankare Mound; by the end of the 13th century a stone church had replaced it, consecrated on 17 June 1300 to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Henry, the first Bishop of Finland.

Through the Middle Ages it kept growing, until there were 42 side chapels and the vaults rose to 24 metres. In a niche by the pulpit is the reliquary chest of Bishop Hemming, a friend of Saint Birgitta of Sweden. And in a black marble sarcophagus rests Queen Karin Månsdotter, who died in 1612, the only Swedish royal buried in Finland.

The Great Fire of Turku in 1827 badly damaged the cathedral, and most of the interior dates from the restoration of the 1830s. The spire built after the fire reaches 101 metres above sea level.