Tampere is a city in Pirkanmaa in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries; it has a population of 238,140 with the urban area holding 334,112 people and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, holding 385,301 inhabitants in an area of 4,970 km2 .
Tampere is wedged between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Tampere is dubbed the “Manchester of the North” for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname “Manse” and terms such as “Manserock”. Also, Tampere has been officially declared the “Sauna Capital of the World”, because it has the most public saunas in the world.
Sites of interest
One of the main tourist attractions is the Särkänniemi amusement park, which includes the landmark Näsinneula tower, topped by a revolving restaurant. In addition to these, it used to house a dolphinarium. Other sites of interest are Tampere Cathedral, Tampere City Hall, Tampere Central Library Metso (“Capercaillie”), Kaleva Church (both designed by Reima Pietilä), the Tampere Hall (along Hämeenkatu) for conferences and concerts, the Tampere Market Hall and historical Pyynikki observation tower.
Tampere has at least seven hotels, the most noteworthy of which are Hotel Tammer, Hotel Ilves, and Hotel Torni, the tallest hotel building in Finland.
Tampere is also home to one of the last museums in the world dedicated to Vladimir Lenin. The museum is housed in the Tampere Workers’ Hall (along Hallituskatu) where during a subsequent Bolshevik conference in the city, Lenin met Joseph Stalin for the first time. Lenin moved to Tampere in August 1905, but eventually fled for Sweden in November 1907 when being pursued by the Russian Okhrana. Lenin would not return to any part of the Russian Empire until ten years later, when he heard of the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
There are many museums and galleries, including:
- The Vapriikki Museum Centre which includes the Natural History Museum of Tampere, Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame, Finnish Museum of Games, Post Museum and the Shoe Museum
- Tampere Art Museum
- Tampere Lenin Museum
- The Moomin Museum, about Moomins
- Rupriikki Media Museum
- Spy Museum in Siperia
- Workers’ housing museum in Amuri.
- Finland’s largest glass sculpture, owned by the City of Tampere, “Pack Ice / The Mirror of the Sea” by the renowned artist Timo Sarpaneva, was installed in the entrance lobby of the downtown shopping mall KoskiKeskus until it was moved to a warehouse.
Pispala
Pispala is a ridge located between the two lakes. It’s the highest gravel ridge in the world, raising 80 metres (260 ft) above Lake Pyhäjärvi and around 160 metres (520 ft) above sea level. It was used to house the majority of industrial labour in the late 19th and early 20th century, when it was part of Suur-Pirkkala and its successor Pohjois-Pirkkala. It was a free area to be built upon by the working-class people working in Tampere factories. It joined Tampere in 1937. Currently it is a residential area undergoing significant redevelopment and together with neighbouring Pyynikki it forms an important historical area of Tampere.
Education
The comprehensive education is given mainly in Finnish but the city has special bilingual groups where students study in Finnish and a second language (English, French or German). Furthermore there is a private Swedish-speaking school (Swedish Svenska samskolan i Tammerfors) that covers all levels of education from preschool to high school.
There are three institutions of higher education in the Tampere area totaling 40,000 students: the university and two polytechnic institutions (Finnish: ammattikorkeakoulu). Tampere University (TUNI) has over 20,000 students and is located in two campuses, one in the Kalevanharju district, close to the city centre, and one in Hervanta, in the southern part of the city. The institution was formed in 2019 as a result of the merge of University of Tampere (UTA) and Tampere University of Technology (TUT). TUNI is also the major shareholder of the Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu, TAMK), a polytechnic counting about 10,000 students. The Police University College, the polytechnic institution serving all of Finland in its field of specialization, is also located in Tampere.
Tampere University Hospital (Tampereen yliopistollinen sairaala, TAYS) in the Kauppi district, one of the main hospitals in Finland, is affiliated with Tampere University. It is a teaching hospital with 34 medical specializations.
Arts and culture
Tampere is known for its active cultural life. Some of the most popular writers in Finland, such as Väinö Linna, Kalle Päätalo, and Hannu Salama, hail from Tampere. These authors are known particularly as writers depicting the lives of working-class people, thanks to their respective backgrounds as members of the working class. Also from such a background was the poet Lauri Viita of the Pispala district, which was also the original home of the aforementioned Hannu Salama. On October 1, Tampere celebrates the annual Tampere Day (Finnish: Tampereen päivä), which hosts a variety of public events.
Food
Mustamakkara (“black sausage”), a speciality food from Tampere, is typically consumed with lingonberry jamTampere claims to be the “wings capital of Finland”, consuming over half of the hot wings in Finland. The restaurant chain Siipiweikot originates from Tampere.
A local food speciality is mustamakkara, which resembles the black pudding of northern England. It is a black sausage made by mixing pork, pig’s blood and crushed rye and flour and is stuffed into the intestines of an animal. It is commonly eaten with lingonberry sauce. Especially Tammelantori square in the district of Tammela is known for its mustamakkara kiosks.
A newer Tampere tradition are munkki, fresh sugary doughnuts that are sold in several cafés around Tampere, but most traditionally in Pyynikki observation tower.
Theatre
Tampere has a lengthy tradition of theater, with established institutions such as Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, Tampereen Teatteri, and Pyynikin Kesäteatteri, which is an open-air theatre with the oldest revolving auditorium in Europe. The Tampere Theatre Festival (Tampereen teatterikesä) is an international theatre festival held in the city each August.
Economy
The Tampere region, Pirkanmaa, which includes outlying municipalities, has around 509,000 residents, 244,000 employed people, and a turnover of 28 billion euros as of 2014.
According to the Tampere International Business Office, the area is strong in mechanical engineering and automation, information and communication technologies, and health and biotechnology, as well as pulp and paper industry education. Unemployment rate was 15.7% in August 2020. 70% of the areas jobs are in the service sector. Less than 20% are in the manufacturing sector. 34.5% of employed people live outside the Tampere municipality and commute to Tampere for work. Meanwhile 15.6% of Tampere’s residents work outside Tampere. In 2014 the largest employers were Kesko, Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa, Alma Media and Posti Group.
According to a study carried out by the Synergos Research and Training Center of the University of Tampere, the total impact of tourism in the Tampere region in 2012 was more than 909 million euros. Tourism also brought 4,805 person-years to the region. The biggest single attraction in Tampere is the Särkänniemi amusement park, which had about 630,000 visitors in 2016. In addition, in 2015, 1,021,151 overnight stays were made in Tampere hotels.
