2012 is the 200th anniversary of the what European capital city's status, moved from Turku by Czar Alexander I of Russia?
Turku capital, but soon lost the status to Helsinki, as Emperor Alexander I felt that Turku was too far from Russia and too aligned with Sweden to serve as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The change officially took place in 1812. The government offices that remained in Turku were finally moved to the new capital after the Great Fire of Turku, which almost completely destroyed the city in 1827. After the fire, a new and safer city plan was drawn up by German architect Carl Ludvig Engel, who had also designed the new capital, Helsinki. Turku remained the
Prince Alexander of the Netherlands Netherlands gave his daughter-in-law Anna Pavlovna the Czar Peter House in Zaandam, which had been inhabited by her ancestor Peter I of Russia during his stay in the Dutch Republic. Prince Alexander was christened on the forty-sixth birthday of his grandfather, August 24, 1818 by the reverend Krieger in The Hague. The young Prince's paternal great-grandmother Wilhelmina of Prussia was present for the occasion. Alexander received the names of his maternal uncles Alexander I of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia, Nicholas I of Russia and Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia. Alexander was educated together with his brother