Get inspired by Tampere!
Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Tampere
– the Sauna Capital of the World
Tampere is famous for its sauna culture and the city region has almost 70 public saunas to choose from. Here are some of our favorites.
RAJAPORTTI
The oldest public sauna in Finland. Here you will experience the traditional sauna atmosphere. Let the locals show you how it’s done!
KUUMA SAUNA & RESTAURANT
Enjoy the heat, dip into the Ratina bay and have some food or drinks in the restaurant. KAUPINOJA AND RAUHANIEMI
These lakeside saunas are loved by both locals and visitors. Swimming and sauna all year round!
CHECK OUT MORE AT VISITTAMPERE.COM
Enjoy the views
Tampere offers many great places to enjoy the stunning city views. Head out to Pyynikki ridge to climb up to the observation tower and marvel at the views opening to Pyhäjärvi and Näsijärvi lakes. While you’re there, don’t forget to test the best doughnuts in the world! Also, check out Näsinneula observation tower and Moro Sky Bar on top of Solo Sokos Hotel Torni.
The great outdoors by the lakes
In Tampere, the lakeside starts from the city centre, and so do the forests. Breathe some fresh air in Pyynikki nature reserve. Located a stone’s throw away from Tampere city centre, Kauppi area with a large forest area on the shore of lake Näsijärvi, offers multiple options for outdoor activities. During winter you can skate and ski on the ice of the lake Näsijärvi. By the way, the beautiful nature of Hervanta is super easy to reach – just hop on the tram!
Culture experiences for every taste
Tampere is known for its vivid cultural life. The city is famous for its theatres, live music and various festivals. Popular culture venues like Tampere Hall, Tavara-asema, Olympia-kortteli and G Livelab offer cultural performances all year around. Tampere is also quite possibly the most interesting city of diverse museums – themed museums from art to police and from spies to history of labor offer exploring for every taste.
Explore with the family
Museum Centre Vapriikki has many ongoing exhibitions at the same time and the world’s only Moomin Museum invites you and your family for a magical journey into the fairytale world. Another great place for the whole family is Tallipiha Stable Yards. If you’re lucky, you might experience a horse carriage ride there!
Savor the food
Are you Hungry for Tampere? Savor the tastes and atmosphere of this unique city and find your favorite dishes from its vast range of restaurants. Local, organic, vegan, oriental… Tampere has it all. Not to mention the breweries!
Tampere is known as the heart of the events, where people enjoy music, theatre, museums and the unique atmosphere of the city. Visit Tampere event calendar will help you to find interesting things to do, to see and to experience in the Tampere Region. visittampere.fi/en/events/
Share your favourites on social media with #visittampere @visittampereofficial
Tampere Times
Magazine for Visitors
Issue 2/2024
Autumn-Winter-Spring www.tamperetimes.fi
ISSN 2343-3817 (print) ISSN 2669-8293 (online)
Graphic design & layout
Petteri Mero
Mainostoimisto Knok Oy
Printed by Newprint Oy
CONTENTS
Discover the charm of autumn and winter in Tampere 8
Tracking the Snow 10 “Nature, with a sense of humor” 12
Tampere in a nutshell 16
Map of Tampere 18
Hotels providing Tampere Times 20
Colour is like oxygen for Suvi Sysi 23
Finnish gastronomy as a religious experience 28
The most horrifying hotels – Column by Marko Hautala 32
Editor in chief
Roope Lipasti
Sales manager
Raimo Kurki
raimo.kurki@aikalehdet.fi
Tel. +358 45 656 7216
Sales Pirkko Puurunen
pirkko.puurunen@aikalehdet.fi
Tel. +358 40 507 1002
Published by Mobile-Kustannus Oy
Brahenkatu 14 D 94 FI-20100 Turku, Finland
Member of Finnish Magazine Media Association (Aikakausmedia)
Publisher Teemu Jaakonkoski
Cover photos
Sauna in Rauhaniemi
Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere
Restaurant Dining 26 by Arto Rastas
Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere
UMK24 DJ party
Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere
Tampere by night
Photo: Laura Vanzo / Visit Tampere
Marko Hautala.
Photo: Veikko Somerpuro / Tammi
SHOPPING CENTRE RATINA
THE BIGGEST SHOPPING EXPERIENCE IN TAMPERE.
Over 100 shops, the best brands in Tampere!
Over 20 restaurants and cafés!
Food, fashion, beauty, home decor & much more!
Discover the charm of autumn and winter in Tampere
Located between two stunning lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, Tampere is a captivating destination that blends history, nature, and modernity. With a population of over 250,000, Tampere is a vibrant hub that offers a perfect blend of urban life and outdoor activities. Tampere has something for everyone – especially during the autumn and the winter months.
Autumn in Tampere is a delight. The crisp air and gentle breeze make it an ideal season for outdoor exploration. You can explore, for example, the Pyynikki ridge and observation tower. Pyynikki is a nature park that offers panoramic views of the lakes and forests of Tampere, and it is especially beautiful in autumn. After your walk, be sure to visit the café in the observation tower and taste the famous freshly baked doughnuts.
For those interested in culture and history, for example, the Vapriikki museum is a must-see. This large museum centre is located on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids. Vapriikki offers exhibitions from natural history to Finnish hockey. Another nice tip is to visit Särkänniemi in October, even though it is a summer hotspot. Its autumn edition, the Karmiva Karnevaali, is a Halloween-themed festival in October, when the amusement park is transformed into a spooky wonderland. Celebrating the darkest season of the year, the Tampere Festival of Light will also illuminate the city centre with magical lights, street projections and exciting light art from 24 October 2024 onwards.
As the snow begins to fall, Tampere also turns into a winter wonderland. The city offers a wide range of activities that embrace the season, from cozy indoor experiences to outdoor adventures. You can visit Näsinneula Observation Tower and enjoy the winter views. The 168-meter-high Näsinneula is the tallest free-standing building in Finland, and the views from the top are worth experiencing. In winter, the city and the surrounding lakes are covered in snow, offering a serene and magical landscape. The restaurant at the top is the perfect place to enjoy a warm meal while admiring the winter scenery.
The bravest can take a dip in a frozen lake and go for ice swimming. For the more adventurous travelers, ice swimming is a unique Finnish experience. Tampere has several spots where locals and visitors can take a dip in the icy water after warming up in a traditional sauna. Rauhaniemi and Kaupinoja saunas offer this combination of hot and cold therapy. It’s not only refreshing but also a deeply rooted Finnish tradition.
Ice skating in Sorsapuisto or hiking in snow-covered forests are very popular outdoor activities during winter times. Winter sports enthusiasts can head to the Sorsapuisto ice rink, located near the city center, where you can enjoy skating in a scenic park setting. Alternatively, for those who prefer cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, the Kauppi Sports Park offers beautiful nature to enjoy. You can rent equipment, which makes it easy for visitors to practice winter sports.
If you visit Tampere at Christmas time, no winter visit is complete without experiencing the Joulutori Christmas Market. Located in the central Keskustori square, the market is filled with wooden stalls selling handirafts, seasonal food and hot drinks, such as glögi, which is Finnish mulled wine. The atmosphere is cozy at its best, paired with lights and snow, which makes it feel like a scene straight from of a Christmas postcard.
Tampere offers a mix of nature and culture, where there’s something for every traveler. Its industrial roots add character, while the surrounding lakes and forests provide endless opportunities for outdoor adventures. The city comes alive with seasonal festivities, from the Tampere Festival of Light to the Christmas markets, making it an attractive year-round destination.
The city of Tampere embraces the changing seasons. We want to highlight the beauty of nature. Whether you’re having coffee in a cozy café or embarking on a snowy adventure, Tampere promises experiences for every taste.
Kalervo Kummola mayor of Tampere
Tracking the Snow
In Finland, snow is such a commonplace thing that we seldom stop to think about what it really is.
Is THere anyTHing more beautiful than dusk when the temperature is just below freezing and white snowflakes float down from the sky, sparkling like diamonds under the glowing street lights? Soon the ground is blanketed in white, and it’s so lovely that you almost want to eat it.
But is eating it a good idea? Ultimately, snow is water, after all, or more precisely, snow is ice crystals formed in the atmosphere that have fallen to earth. That can’t be very toxic, can it?
Snow scientist Sirpa Rasmus from the University of Lapland points out that even though snow looks clean, the crystals actually form around impurities, meaning microscopic bacteria or other particles floating in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, this doesn’t alarm the snow
scientist herself, and she would very well eat snow. At least sometimes:
“In general, it’s not a great idea to eat snow in cities because of exhaust fumes. If you do want to melt water for drinking, for example, on a hike, it’s best to dig down to the depth hoar, which is usually the cleanest.”
Many kinds of snow
Depth hoar is a particular type of snow – because snow is never just snow. Instead, snow always has distinct characteristics. Finns can list a dozen names for different types of snow off the top of their heads.
Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen
For example, suojalumi is the wet snow that’s good for making snowballs. It occurs when the temperature is above zero and the snow doesn’t melt right away, but does become wet. Conversely, pakkaslumi, dry snow, doesn’t stick together very well.
Tykkylumi is snow that accumulates in stunningly beautiful drifts on the branches of trees. There can be up to three tons of snow on a single spruce.
Loska, on the other hand, is halfway between snow and water. Hankikanto is a phenomenon that usually occurs in the spring, where the surface of the snowpack freezes and can be walked on as easily as walking on the street. And so on: a loved child has many names. Paradoxically, however, the international world of snow science operates in English, which can be difficult because there are not as many snow terms on offer in English. So words are borrowed from other languages as needed. For example, there’s no term in English for the season when roads are impassable due to melting snow and ice, so the Finnish rospuutto or Russian rasputitsa are used.
When snowflakes end up beneath the surface layer of snow, their crystal structure immediately starts to change, affecting factors such as the hardness and density of the snow. You can see this in practice by how easy or difficult the snow is to walk in.
It is a common belief that no two snowflakes are exactly alike. According to the snow scientist, this is not quite true:
“Or it kind of depends... If you look at them under a microscope, no two are the same because no two conditions of formation are exactly the same. But if we look at them with the naked eye, it’s easy to divide them into a few generic categories. It always depends on what the cloud where they originated was like.”
There is always at least enough snow that Finns are used to getting around in it, although we may curse the sheets of ice we have to cross to get to our cars.
Though there are countless different kinds of snow, distinguishing between snow and ice is easy enough:
“As long as there is airflow between the ice crystals, it’s snow. And when there isn’t, it’s ice. Of course, there can be air bubbles in ice, but they aren’t going anywhere until the ice melts,” Rasmus explains.
Some snow is born on the ground
About that depth hoar – it’s snow scientist Rasmus’s personal favorite type of snow, “because of how depth hoar is formed. It doesn’t fall from the sky – it’s born on the ground, inside the snowpack. It’s a useful snow for animals, too, though in the mountains, it’s a risk due to avalanches,” Rasmus says.
Depth hoar is also called sugar snow because of its sugary texture, and every child who has ever made a snow fort knows that you can’t make it stick: it slides down the walls to the bottom of your hole. That’s because the bonds between the crystals are not very strong. Forest animals, on the other hand, like sugar snow because it is easy to walk on.
Sugar snow is created as the snowpack lives and changes. It turns out that snowpack is very dynamic, though it might not look like it. There are a variety of temperatures in snowpack: it is warmer lower down than at the surface, which causes air movement, evaporation, and deposition, changing the shape of snow crystals.
“Depth hoar crystals are formed as a result of that movement. Instead of being star-shaped, they’re hollow pyramid-shaped cups, kind of like diamond pyramids,” Rasmus says. And since they aren’t the typical six-pointed crystals, they don’t stick together easily.
No two snowflakes alike?
The most common form of falling snow is indeed the six-pointed so-called stellar crystal. As they fall toward the ground, crystals stick together and form beautiful snowflakes.
Experts on slippery conditions
There are many reasons to study snow, but one of the oldest is the desire to be able to predict avalanches.
The amount of snow is also closely monitored:
“These days, it’s done with satellites, but it still takes traditional fieldwork to know what the snowpack is like. That way energy companies can predict the following spring’s water volumes, for example. Or animal researchers can predict mole populations. Snow information is also useful for reindeer husbandry,” Rasmus says.
Climate change can be seen in the snow as well. Winters are milder these days, resulting in periods of rain between freezing temperatures, causing the snow to freeze, melt, and freeze again. This creates ice layers in the snowpack, which makes it difficult for animals to survive. It’s also a risk for reindeer husbandry.
In the end, on a global scale, Finland is not an exceptionally snowy place. In California, for example, the snow depth record is no less than 12 meters, while Lapland’s record is a measly two meters.
But there is always at least enough snow that Finns are used to getting around in it, although we may curse the sheets of ice we have to cross to get to our cars. When it comes to the penguin walk – legs wide, center of gravity evenly over your feet, short waddling steps – Finns are highly skilled!
“We once had an Italian exchange student, and he was constantly falling in the snow. He simply hadn’t learned to walk in it. Only then did I understand that, for us Finns, it’s just what we grew up with. We’re used to slippery conditions,” Rasmus says.
P.S. One more tip for tourists: If the snow is yellow, you definitely don’t want to eat it! s
What can you do with snow?
Build forts, sculptures, shelters, lanterns, balls (for a snowball fight).
In the snow you can also:
Walk, sled, and cross-country or downhill ski – plus, of course, skate on the ice!
“Nature, with a sense of humor”
Heli Laaksonen is Finland’s only professional poet-naturalist.
Poet Heli Laaksonen is known in Finland not only for her bright sense of humor, but also for her Western Finnish dialect, which she uses in both her speech and her writing. She is one of Finland’s best-selling poets and also a popular performer. Slightly less well-known is her love for Finnish nature, which has found its way into a couple of books, including her recent foray into English-language publishing.
The Nature of Finnish Nature takes a humorous approach to describing the basics of Finnish nature.
Actually, we have COVID-19 to thank for the book: the pandemic put a stop to Laaksonen’s poetry performances and gave her time to think about what to do next in life.
“A writer’s work always involves a certain amount of ongoing struggle with the profession, so I thought about what else I could do that would make people happy,” she says.
So Laaksonen studied to become a nature and environmental advisor. The first six months went quite well without writing, but in the spring semester, she experienced a relapse, and a book called Luonnos was born. Laaksonen herself describes it as a “literary nonfiction nature book.” And she continues with the same humorous take on nature in the recently released sequel, Jatkos.
“In school, we did traditional presentations. We got a reference book and found out about something we didn’t know the least about beforehand, like pygmy shrews. Nature books are really nice, and they contain a lot of information, but they can often be a bit dry, so
I wondered if it would be possible to tell readers about these things in a fun, yet informative way.”
As it turns out, it is possible.
In Luonnos, Laaksonen discusses things like “The Sun,” “Bream” (a fish), and “Orpine” (a wildflower). The word luonnos has two meanings in Finnish: on the one hand, it means “in nature,” and on the other hand, “a sketch” or “a draft.” From this starting point, The Nature of Finnish Nature was born, which not only makes for a great souvenir, but also serves as a small and funny – not to mention poetic – information package for foreigners coming to Finland.
The world’s shortest nature trail
Nature has always been present to a certain extent in Laaksonen’s poems, so perhaps it was only natural that she would land on the profession of nature advisor. And it’s good that she did because her way of explaining things is not only entertaining, but also informative.
One of Laaksonen’s nature innovations is a six-meter-long nature trail. It has proven so popular, however, that she has expanded on the concept, and the trail is now seven meters long.
“So you had better put on your hiking boots,” she recommends.
The nature trail itself prompts you to look closely and walk along it slowly.
“It’s fascinating to think that everything is something and belongs to the same system. For example, if I scrape my finger along a windowsill between the panes of glass, it’s easy to call the stuff there gunk, but actually, it’s made up of things like spider webs, birch seeds, and a couple of insect wings. If you scooped up a handful of earth the same way, you would find a thousand times more of everything. And all
Heli Laaksonen.
Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen
that stuff has a name too, which is amazing. Or if it doesn’t have a name, then that’s really amazing!”
Though the loss of nature is alarming in many places, in Finland as elsewhere, Laaksonen doesn’t want to be an end-times prophet:
“I don’t want to make people worry – I want to inspire a love for nature. So that in the decades to come, when you google the word ‘moss’, the first ten answers won’t be how to get rid of it, but instead about all its benefits.”
Blueberries and the flying squirrel
For The Nature of Finnish Nature, Laaksonen has chosen plants, animals, and natural phenomena that occur in Finland in particular.
“Some of them I did specifically for this book, since I thought they might be interesting for foreigners. Like light, for instance. In Finland, the light is awfully unruly: in the summer, it won’t go out, won’t go out... And then in the winter it won’t turn on, won’t turn on. The contrasts are huge.”
To find out which parts of the book were of particular interest to foreigners, Laaksonen asked a group of ten tourists to look at it and tell her what stood out to them.
One thing that made an impression was the ordinary blueberry. Or perhaps, more specifically, the idea that you can just pick them and eat them and make a blueberry pie, if you like! In other words, the fact that anyone in Finland can go into any forest and pick berries. It’s something that Laaksonen also finds appealing about Finnish nature:
“That you can sneak off into nature wherever you are. You can just go. You have permission. It has a Native feel to it, that no one can own the land. Of course, someone does own it, but anyone can go lean on the trees and smell them.”
In addition to blueberries, the tourists read about the northern lights and were fascinated by the flying squirrel:
“The flying squirrel is a Finnish oddity. It’s a creature that lives in the east and the north: it exists in Russia, but Finland is the westernmost place – they don’t have it in Sweden. And the flying squirrel is pretty amazing!”
Pigeons and elk
Of course, Finnish nature can also be found in the city, so nature guide Laaksonen also has tips for travelers who won’t have the chance to visit the real forest:
“In the city, I would take tourists to marvel at completely ordinary pigeons. There are tons of them. They’re fat and greasy and meaty-looking. They have funny, rosy-pink legs and lively eyes. When they walk, the chest comes first, and the rest of the pigeon follows. We would observe how they take an interest in us and then lose interest if there isn’t any food.
“After that, we would use a magnifying glass to look at tree trunks and their mosses and lichens. We would look for red sandspurry in the cracks in the pavement. It’s a small plant, a bit like dill, about the height of the first joint on your little finger. It’s cute and delicate and looks a little childish. We would get down on our knees to admire it, and the tourists would of course have good cameras, so we would get great pictures. If we were lucky, we might see a black-backed gull. A large part of the global population lives in Finland. It’s very endangered, even here, but you might see them anyway.”
Heli Laaksonen, if you were a plant, what plant would you be?
“To be completely honest, I would be a bindweed. It’s a weed of course, and people hate it, but it’s cute. It has flowers that look like a pink ballet skirt, and beautiful leaves that it uses to decorate everything. Something like a mugwort, for example, looks quite scraggly, but bindweed will wind around it and make it pretty.”
If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
“This might be a little boring, but I’d be a female bear. It sleeps from November to March, which I would be interested in as well. It’s got a pudgy shape, but it also has explosive power. The downside of being a female bear is that, because they’re so rare, every time you would go to wash in the morning, there would be a nature photographer ready to post the pictures on social media. I would want to know in advance, at least, so I would know to wash elegantly!”
In the forest, the nature guide would point out things like the rock formations known as roche moutonnée:
“They were formed during the Ice Age, when the mountains on top of them more or less took off, and all that was left was the root of the mountain, the root of the world. And of course, you can always hope to see an elk. A friend of mine held glasswork classes, and the French women who took the classes always wanted to make an elk. I’m not a bit surprised. It’s a wonderful animal – strange-looking, like it was crudely shaped with a Stone-Age mallet, quite different from, say, a graceful roe deer.” s
Heli Laaksonen: The Nature of Finnish Nature, 2024, Otava.
Tampere in a nutshell
8000 BC
The connection to ocean from the Tampere region was cut when the ice age was finally over. As the ice melted, the land rose up and the lakes were born – also Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and little later the Tampere Rapids. A must see attraction from the ice age is Pyynikki, a 90 hectare ridge area, which is almost in the centre of the city. From here there are marvellous views to lake Pyhäjärvi. It is also a beautiful place for other outdoor activities.
600
Tampere was an ideal place to build a village, because there were good waterways to both north and south. The first signs of permanent living in the area are from the 7th century.
1200
By the 13th century Tampere region had grown, and it was an important market place. It was inhabited by the Pirkka tribe and even today the Tampere province is called Pirkanmaa, “The land of the Pirkka”.
1638
Tampere was not yet an actual city, but in 1638 Finland’s governor Per Brahe ordered two yearly fairs to be held at the the Tampere Rapids. That’s why Turku – the then capital of Finland – and Tampere have got a special connections of fates, for when the whole city of Turku burned in 1827, the damage was so severe partly because all the men from Turku happened to be at the Tampere fair.
Written by roope Lipasti transLated by oWen F. Witesman
1779
The King Gustav III of Sweden finally granted Tampere the full township status. And no wonder, because Tampere was huge: 3.2 square kilometres with population of no less than 200!
1824
The beautiful old church of Tampere was built. The architect was Charles Bassi.
1820
A Scotsman called James Finlayson set up a cotton factory near the Tampere Rapids. It was the first but not last major factory in the remarkable industrial history of Tampere. Finlayson still is a brand every Finn knows. Also from that time on, the use of waterpower from Tampere Rapids became important.
1840
From the 1840’s Tampere became the most industrialised city in Finland. Soon there were factories that made iron, paper, machinery, clothes, shoes and many other things. Even to this day Tampere is sometimes called “Manse”, which comes from the saying that Tampere is the Manchester of Finland.
1901
Tampere is also a vibrant theatre city. The first one, Tampereen Työväen Teatteri – The Tampere Workers Theatre – was established 1901. In 2020 there are over 10 professional theatres in the area.
1918
In 1918 Finland was torn by a civil war with two sides: the “reds” and the “whites”. As a working class city, Tampere sided with the reds (who lost). Tampere saw severe battles, thousands died in war efforts and even more in prison camps.
1939–1945
Finland was in war against Russia, and Tampere was an important centre of war industry. For example Tampella made mortars and cannons. Tampere was also bombed, but luckily there was little damage.
1971
Näsinneula, the high tower that Tampere is famous for, was built. Few years later The Särkänniemi Amusement Park opened its doors.
1990
During the 90’s the heavy industry of Tampere was in trouble. One reason was the collapse of Soviet Union, but all and all the world was changing. The chimneys were no longer active, and the factories shut down. Nowadays they are renovated for apartments, museums and such. Industry in today’s Tampere in mostly high tech.
2024
Tampere is the third biggest city in Finland, with 255,000 inhabitants in the city. It has four universities and a very vivid cultural life. Tampere is also a city of vision and courage: the brand new tramway is a good example of that! s
Tampere Times is available in these high standard hotels
01 courTyard by marrioTT
Tampere ciTy HoTel
Yliopistonkatu 57, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 29 357 5700 www.marriott.com
02 dream HosTel Tampere
Åkerlundinkatu 2, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 45 236 0517 www.dreamhostel.fi
03 Holiday inn Tampere
cenTral sTaTion
Rautatienkatu 21, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 2392 2000 www.ihg.com
04 HoTel Homeland
Kullervonkatu 19, 33500 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 3126 0200 www.homeland.fi
05 HoTel kauppi
Kalevan puistotie 2, 33500 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 253 5353 www.hotelli-kauppi.fi
06 lapland HoTel Tampere
Yliopistonkatu 44, 33100 Tampere
Tel. + 358 3 383 0000 www.laplandhotels.com
07 lillan bouTique HoTel
Kurjentaival 35, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 10 200 7305 www.lillan.fi
08 original sokos HoTel ilVes
Hatanpään valtatie 1, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 20 123 4631 www.sokoshotels.fi
09 original sokos HoTel Villa
Sumeliuksenkatu 14, 33100, Tampere +358 20 123 4633 www.sokoshotels.fi
10 radisson blu
grand HoTel Tammer
Satakunnankatu 13, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 20 123 4632 www.radissonblu.com
11 scandic eden nokia
Paratiisikatu 2, 37120 Nokia
Tel. +358 3 4108 1627 www.scandichotels.fi
12 scandic rosendaHl
Pyynikintie 13, 33230 Tampere
Tel +358 3 244 1111 www.scandichotels.fi
13 scandic Tampere ciTy
Hämeenkatu 1, 33100 Tampere
Tel. + 358 3 244 6111 www.scandichotels.fi
14 scandic Tampere HämeenpuisTo
Hämeenpuisto 47, 33200 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 4108 1628 www.scandichotels.fi
15 scandic Tampere koskipuisTo
Koskikatu 5, 33100 Tampere
Tel. +358 3 4108 1626 www.scandichotels.fi
16 scandic Tampere sTaTion
Ratapihankatu 37, 33100 Tampere
Tel +358 3 339 8000 www.scandichotels.fi
17 solo sokos HoTel Torni Tampere
Ratapihankatu 43, 33100, Tampere
Tel. +358 20 123 4634 www.sokoshotels.fi
18 spa HoTel Holiday club
Tampereen kylpylä
Lapinniemenranta 12, 33180 Tampere
Tel. +358 30 687 0000 www.holidayclub.fi
Photo:
Colour is like oxygen for Suvi Sysi, the Young Artist of the Year 2024
Tampere Art Museum has been selecting the Young Artist of the Year for forty years. This year, this prestigious title and award was given to Suvi Sysi, whose art currently explores and traverses from the core of printmaking towards the interfaces of sculpture, installation and painting.
SuVi Sysi (b. 1990 Nilsiä, Finland) is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki. She studied printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki and graduated with an MFA degree in 2020. The roots of Sysi’s art are in the printmaking methods and paper-based works. In addition to paper, her materials include clay, wood and plaster, and her works often take the form of abstract installations.
Written by aino nurmesjärvi & virpi nikkari
Quotations transLated by Gerard mCaLester
Suvi Sysi describes paper as the most important material in her works:
“It is exceptional that, in my experience, no other material can reproduce colour so lightly and at the same time so intensively. Paper has a will. It is something that I can work with. Paper receives colour, moisture and treatment in different ways according to its nature. It also remembers how it has been treated.”
“What intrigues me about paper is its durability, its fragility and above all how it feels in one’s hands and on one’s fingertips. After expanding my work to become ever more material, I notice that I am looking for the feeling and affinity of paper in other materials that I use, like clay, wood and plaster.”
Over the years, Sysi has also widened her artistic creation more and more in the spatial and physical direction:
Young Artist of the Year Award
“I wanted to get away from the surface of the paper, and my works became ever more spatial. I began to think of the exhibition space as my sheet of paper, onto which various gestures (works) were placed.”
Suvi Sysi’s artworks are characterised by their materiality, their processual and research-based nature, and their sense of playfulness and wonder. The role of colour in her art is fundamental, in many cases being the actual subject rather than just one element of expression among others.
For her, colour is the soul of the work:
“A yearning after colour is central in my works and in my life. It’s like oxygen or water – a basic need that has to be fulfilled. Colour feels in my guts, and it brings water to my mouth. It is above all a corporeal sensation that can’t be described in words: colour explains itself.”
Year 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Tampere Art Museum's Young Artist of the Year award, one of Finland's best-known and most prestigious fine art prizes. The aim of the award, which was initiated by the Tampere Junior Chamber International in 1984, is to highlight talented Finnish artists under the age of 35 and to increase the visibility of contemporary art. The jury, which has been renewed several times over the years, consists of visual art experts and is chaired by the director of the Tampere Art Museum. The selected artist receives a grant of 20,000 euros and the opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the museum. The award has succeeded in creating a path to fame for young artists both in Finland and internationally.
Suvi Sysi: Story of a Circle, 2024. Monotype and woodcut on washi paper, collage.
Suvi Sysi working in her studio.
A yearning after colour is central in my works and in my life. It’s like oxygen or water.
- Suvi Sysi
A feast for the eyes
At the same time as the works of Suvi Sysi, the Tampere Art Museum also displays a selection of works by the recipients of the Young Artist of the Year award from the 1980s to the 2020s from the museum’s collections. The exhibition A Feast for the Eyes features paintings, sculptures, prints, media works, installations and phtographs. The selection of artists and artworks emphasizes the diversity of techniques and modes of expression, as well as the temporal breadth of the works, while reflecting the trends and values of contemporary art of their time.
Most of the works in the exhibition have been acquired from the original exhibitions. Although the works are very different from each other, they are united by originality, experimentation and boldness. Many of those chosen as the Young Artist of the Year have gone on to have an impressive international career as visual artists. s
Window Walkabout
opens the Tampere Festival of Light
Window Walkabout, which presents light art, is the opening event of the Tampere Festival of Light in October. You can go on a Window Walkabout in the centre of Tampere, especially during the three-day festival from Thursday to Saturday, October 24–26, when there are many types of performers in the windows, such as circus artists, dancers and performance artists. The windows of light and visual art, including various installations, will be illuminated every evening from 6 pm to 9 pm until November 3. The event is free of charge.
The event will cover the area between Sorsapuisto Park and Pyynikintori Square. During the Window Walkabout, the public gets to see familiar places “through the eyes of a tourist” by zooming between the large architectural forms and the small details in the windows. On the other hand, an occasional tourist or bystander may unexpectedly encounter art. A browser-based map service will be created for the event, allowing people to find information about the artwork of a particular window.
Starting on 24 October, Window Walkabout is the largest art event ever arranged in the Tampere Region (ie Pirkanmaa). The series of free art events taking place in the windows is carried out by numerous cultural actors, and it is the culmination of the three-year regional culture development project Operation Pirkanmaa.
TAMPERE ART MUSEUM
Puutarhakatu 34
33230 Tampere, Finland
26.10.2024–12.1.2025
• Young Artist of the Year 2024 – Suvi Sysi
• A Feast for the Eyes – Works by the Young Artists of the Year
SEE ON MAP (PAGE 18).
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Young Artist of the Year award drawings by Joel Slotte, the Young Artist of the Year 2021, are projected onto the walls of buildings in the city centre, while the work Enshrine by the current Young Artist of the Year 2024 Suvi Sysi, will be displayed in all the windows of the Tampere Art Museum. With its mutable blue hue and light, Enshrine acts as a link between the outside and the inside: it both protects the content of the artworks inside and communicates it to the outside world. The work is illuminated in the evenings after the museum’s opening hours from 24.10.2024 to 12.1.2025. s
Kaisu Koivisto: Silmänruokaa, 2012. Kaisu Koivisto is the Young Artist of the Year 1996.
Spy Museum
presents the ways and means of espionage
The world’s first spy museum in the city center introduces you to the world of real life James Bonds where a single device can change the world more than governments. World of eavesdropping, hidden cameras and microphones, secret weapons, code breaking, hacking, lock picking...
Remember to say the code “We met at the hotel” to get free AgentTest for the kids!!
VAKOILUMUSEO
Entertainment for all ages
Mariankatu 40, Tampere
Emil Aaltonen museum of industry and art. The permanent collection represents Aaltonen’s life and displays some of his art collection. The exhibited artists are masters of older Finnish painting. Temporary exhibitions.
THE FINNISH LABOUR MUSEUM WERSTAS
Väinö Linnan aukio 8, Finlayson area Tue–Sun 11 am–6 pm
The new museum opens on the 15th of February 2025! THE MUSEUM OF FINNISH-RUSSIAN RELATIONS
Nootti is a brand-new political history museum focusing on transboundary history: Finnish-Russian relations, from the Soviet Union to the present day.
Legendary Lenin Museum is closed, but Nootti continues with the thrilling history in the same premises.
15.2.–31.5.2025 Tue–Sun 11 am–5 pm. 1.6.–31.8.2025 Mon–Sun 11 am–6 pm.
Tickets 10/8 €, children under 18 years free of charge.
Hämeenpuisto 28, Tampere www.museonootti.fi
Finnish gastronomy as a religious experience
Written
Finland is still the most Lutheran country in the world relative to its population. How are Lutheran ethics visible in Finnish food culture, past and present?
InLutheran – or more broadly, Protestant – ethics, work has intrinsic value and can even be seen as asceticism, in which the focus is industriousness, not happiness. Work is also seen as a way to keep people from sin and frivolous pleasures. According to defenders, this interpretation is too strict. Seppo Simola, the editor in chief of Kirkko ja kaupunki (Church and City) magazine, writes that the Lutheran work ethic has often been distorted and that “all kinds of problems have been blamed on it, from workaholism and the glaring flaws of capitalism, to the gloomy disposition of Finns and their vulnerability to suicide.” Simola states that, though Lutheranism values hard
by matti mäkeLä transLated by Christina saarinen
work, “It is good to observe moderation in everything, including in work.” Bishop Jari Jolkkonen has also pointed out that already at the time of the Reformation, Calvinists were considered uptight drudges and Lutherans were mostly known for their princes “degraded by drunkenness.”
In any case, the difference between the Lutheran and Catholic worlds in terms of gastronomy can be summed up in two phrases: while an Italian might say, “Man does not eat to live, but lives to eat”, according to Martin Luther, “As the birds to flying, so is man born unto labor.” What better explanation do we need for one of the best cuisines in the world originating in Italy and not in Finland?
This differing approach is also evident in the fact that in Finland, breakfast is said to be the “most important meal of the day.” Every Italian (or Spaniard or Greek or…) knows that the most important meal of the day is dinner, when a person can linger over good food and wine and spend time with friends and family. The Finnish point of view makes sense only if you see food as a mere tool to keep you fit for working, with no value in and of itself. More proof of this attitude is the fact that in Finland, a person can say “food is just fuel for me” without incurring the ridicule and condescension of all decent people.
acquiring better seed. In the end, his hard work is rewarded, and Paavo and his family reap the best harvest of their life. However, Paavo’s unfortunate neighbor has lost his harvest to frost, so in a fit of fairness, Paavo shares a portion of his own harvest, and – despite his wife’s objections, which seem reasonable – they once again add pettu to their bread.
If hard work ever hasn’t been enough to keep people away from frivolous pleasures, the government has been happy to help. (After all, according to Luther, worldly power also comes from God.) Until 1995, restaurants had to seek a permit from Alko, the Finnish state-owned alcohol monopoly, one of whose principles was that there should not be too many restaurants relative to the number of residents. So if there was already a restaurant serving beer and sausage on the block, it was pointless to dream of getting sushi and sake anywhere nearby. Until 1969, establishing a restaurant in a rural area also required approval from the municipal council, which on top of everything else, would annually decide whether the restaurant could continue to operate.
Finland has taken huge steps in gastronomy in recent decades. Statistics show that there are around 10,000 restaurants in Finland, compared to only 1,500 in the 1960s and 2,700 in the early 1990s.
In the same way, a rather Finnish conversation starter was the view of nutritionist and TV personality Hanna Partanen, who claims that the easy availability of delicious food is the largest cause of Finns being overweight. “I meet people who are such good cooks that they can’t stop eating after just one plateful,” Partanen said with dismay in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat. As a solution, she suggested that people should intentionally start making inferior food at home. (If Partanen were Italian, her grandmother would cross herself in horror.)
In the interest of accuracy, it must also be said that the development or lack of development of Finnish gastronomy has been influenced not only by general morality, but also by the climate and poor availability of ingredients. This dire triad is described in national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg’s (1804–77) poem Paavo of Saarijärvi, whose title character – a hardworking and pious peasant – is Lutheran to the point of being infuriating. Frosts and hailstorms repeatedly take most of the harvest, and Paavo and his family have to add pettu (flour made from the inside layers of pine bark) to their bread to keep away the hunger that’s knocking at the door, or at least push it a little further off. Paavo never loses his faith in God, but he also doesn’t wait for a miracle, like Job of the Old Testament. Instead, he works tirelessly against the hostile conditions, draining and fertilizing the land and
In spite of everything, Finland has taken huge steps in gastronomy in recent decades. Statistics show that there are around 10,000 restaurants in Finland, compared to only 1,500 in the 1960s and 2,700 in the early 1990s. Today, Michelin-starred restaurants can be found not only in Helsinki, but also in Turku, Porvoo, and Ruka, where the world’s northernmost Michelin-starred restaurant is located. The number and quality of ethnic restaurants has also grown dramatically over the last 20 years, especially in the larger cities, as Finland has become more international. In addition, more and more people have taken up cooking as a hobby, which is evidenced by the fact that the most recent seasons of Master Chef Finland are no longer embarrassing to watch.
Still, if you’d like to enjoy a glass of wine with your Sunday lunch at home, you’ll have to remember to visit Alko on Saturday. Another option is to pick up a wine with a maximum ABV of 8 percent from a grocery store, which has been allowed since June 10, 2024 (the attractiveness of this idea is somewhat diminished by the fact that in an interview with the Finnish Broadcasting Company, a manufacturer who produces the wines in question for the Finnish market said he would never even dream of selling them in his home country of Spain). The low-proof wines also demonstrate the slow pace of Finnish deregulation, as 4.7 percent beer has been available in grocery stores since 1969. At the current rate, regular wines will arrive in Finnish stores at the beginning of the 2100s, and Finland’s favorite vodka, Koskenkorva, in 2495. s
Modern dish at Restaurant Periscope.
TIMES COLUMN
The most horrifying hotels
A horror writer’s idea of a comfortable hotel differs from the norm. A view onto a dilapidated courtyard is always nice. In the corridor, a buzzing and flickering bulb and photos of better days gone by are a welcome sight. Ghosts never hurt.
Written by marko hautaLa
transLated by Christina saarinen
I was an adulT when I spent my first night in a hotel, but my concept of them had already been formed in my early teens. I knew that at the Bates Motel, you have to lock the bathroom door, and that it was better not to go to the Overlook Hotel at all, at least not to be the winter caretaker.
My first real experiences were more mundane, of course. The closest I came to shivers of horror was as a young budget traveler in faraway lands, when my windowless room had a decorative border of rather thick mildew, or when an uninvited epicure helped itself to my bag of nuts at night – by all evidence, a rodent.
In the latter case, I informed reception that a mouse was visiting our room. The clerk corrected me: it wasn’t a mouse, but a rat. Apparently, it made the rounds in the hotel kitchen every night, too, so there was no reason to be concerned. Horror is a very culturally specific thing.
I will never forget another experience I had a few years ago. I got lost in the corridors of the Victorian seaside resort built by legendary horror writer Ramsey Campbell and his wife Jenny. There were no staff or other guests to be seen anywhere. The labyrinth went on for so long that I started to truly worry, but of course we did find our way back to civilization. And it was a good thing too, because the rundown hotel hardly needed any horror writers added to its selection of ghosts.
Luckily, you don’t have to worry about the worst kinds of surprises when staying in Finland. The hotels here are usually so uniformly clean and safe that you even find yourself starting to long for cracks in the ordinariness.
Fortunately for me, my wife, Tiina Hautala, collects ghost stories, and one of her books is specifically about hotels.
As recently as ten years ago, ghost stories were seen as oddities in Finland, something that suited the no-nonsense Nordic culture about as well as cherubs would suit Alvar Aalto’s architecture.
Hotel ghost stories have long been an unspoken part of Finnish folklore. The staff might tell stories to each other, often half-jokingly, but there was strict radio silence about the stories outside of hotels.
In Britain, for example, the situation has always been different. It’s hard to find a place to stay on the moors of Yorkshire without at least one anemic maiden or headless lord haunting it, and ghosts are even included in hotel descriptions.
As recently as ten years ago, ghost stories were seen as oddities in Finland, something that suited the no-nonsense Nordic culture about as well as cherubs would suit Alvar Aalto’s architecture.
These days, it seems people have realized that telling stories is a good thing, especially in the case of an older hotel, and certainly not a disadvantage.
I myself have not gotten to witness any hotel ghosts, despite serving as a wingman on my wife’s story-gathering trips. I’ve never woken up to a cold breath on my neck. I sleep like a baby in haunted rooms.
But of course, there is always that one exception.
It was an old, renowned hotel, whose management was very receptive to my wife’s topic of interest. The staff showed us around the building and offered us a suite to stay in, at a bargain price.
I have sometimes been amused by how ghost-hunting shows on TV make drama out of nothing. When the ghost fails to appear, the producers create a mood from people staring into night-vision cameras, telling viewers about their various “sensations.”
Live and learn, however. In the suite of the aforementioned hotel, I experienced very strong “sensations” as soon as I stepped over the threshold. I had an instinctive certainty that something was inexplicably wrong. I didn’t mention it to my wife, however,
because it would have been pointless to activate our imaginations just before bed.
I had a horrible night, with disorienting nightmares, and I woke up again and again with the “sensation” that someone was moving around the room.
First thing in the morning, my wife told me how her night had gone. Apparently, it had been horrible. Disorienting nightmares. Constantly waking up. The feeling that someone was moving around the room.
As a matter of professional interest, we’ll have to book that suite again sometime. s
Marko Hautala is an award-winning horror writer whose novels and short stories have been translated into eight languages. His novelette “Pale Toes” was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award in 2020.
Teerenpeli
www.teerenpeli.com
