Tornio celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2021. The Museum of Tornio Valley and the orienteering club Alatornion Pirkat made a culture orienteering route to celebrate the history of the city. We selected 21 control points which showcase Tornio’s past in different ways and placed them on an authentic city orienteering map. Can you navigate to the right destination and find all the control ponts? Can you also answer all the tricky questions on the points?
How does it work?
The Tornio Culture Orienteering Route is open to everyone and free of charge. It can be done in Finnish, Swedish, and English, and there is no time limit for completing it. All the control points are outdoors in public places. You can go through the points in any order you want and choose to visit all the points in one day or do the orienteering piecemeal on different days.
You can print the orienteering map yourself or get a free paper map from the Museum of Tornio Valley’s customer service during the museum’s opening hours.
In addition to the orienteering map, you need a phone or a tablet that can read QR codes.
The control points are not marked in the terrain. There are also no singnposts or infoboards for the QR codes or point information out in the city. The texts describing the history of the points are all online. When you arrive at what you think is the right place, scan the QR code on your map corresponding to the control point number. The QR code will take you to a website where you can read the point text and answer the related question. You can also access the point texts via the links in the list below. If you don’t have a device that can read QR codes, you can either print the destination texts on paper before setting off or click each link to open it from the list below when you arrive at the control point.
Tornio culture orienteering is not an actual competition, and you don’t need to answer the control point questions behind the QR code if you don’t want to. We use the questions to collect and analyze information on how many times the control points have been visited and how popular the orienteering is. We do not collect personal data about the respondents, or identify individual respondents.
How long does it take?
The Tornio culture orienteering route is a little over 7 km long. The entire route on foot takes 2–3 hours, depending on your speed. You can also set off on a bike or scooter. If going around the entire route at once seems too tiring, you can visit one or two control points at a time, and make it your goal to find all the points during this year. The museum’s test orienteers recommend that you wear good shoes and bring water and snacks with you. Have fun!
Remember to watch out for traffic and stay away from construction sites!
Private yards are marked on the map in green, please respect the residents’ privacy!
Tornio culture orienteering map
Links to the control point information
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 4 Point 5
Point 6 Point 7 Point 8 Point 9 Point 10
Point 11 Point 12 Point 13 Point 14 Point 15
