City Flag of Turku

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 25-Aug-24 this trackable had survived for 2.7 years and had been moved by 8 cachers, for an average drop every 124 days, or 2.9 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

Turku is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper and the former Turku and Pori Province. The region was originally called Suomi (Finland), which later became the name for the whole country. As of 30 September 2018, the population of Turku was 191,499 making it the sixth largest city in Finland after Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa and Oulu. The city is officially bilingual as 5.2 percent of its population identify Swedish as a mother-tongue.

The Finnish name Turku originates from an Old East Slavic word, tǔrgǔ, meaning "market place". The word turku still means "market place" in some Finnish dialects.

Turku is the oldest city in Finland, and served as the most important city of the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden (modern-day Finland). After the Finnish war, Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire in 1809. Turku lost its status as capital of the Grand Duchy in 1812, when Tsar Alexander I of Russia decided to move the capital to Helsinki.

Formally, the flag of Turku is a banner of its arms, Azure [meaning blue] a Mary monogram Or [meaning Gold] surmounted with four fleurs-de-lis Argent (meaning silver or white). In the Catholic church, both an ornate M and a fleur-de-lis are symbols of the Virgin Mary.