It’s been called the Nordic Manchester, boasts of being the world sauna capital and even has links to revolutionary history — and with new flights to Tampere from London, it’s becoming easier to discover why Finland’s third largest city should be on your city break wishlist.
Set on the Tammerkoski rapids, between two large lakes, this source of water power attracted Scottish engineer James Finlayson, who helped start Finland’s industrial revolution in 1820 with a factory manufacturing heavy machinery.
By 1828, he’d switched to textiles, and the town shared so many similarities with its English counterpart, that it became known as the Nordic Manchester — including the conditions of the thousands of workers, which were not much better than in the UK.
It’s no accident that Tampere became a focus for the revolutionaries in the early 20th century. I arrive in the city by train, travelling in the opposite direction to Lenin, who journeyed through Finland to St Petersburg in April 1917, where he joined the Russian Revolution.
Stopping briefly in Tampere along the way, he’d also visited in 1905 when he held a clandestine meeting with Stalin in the Workers Hall to discuss raising money for the Bolsheviks. That room is now a museum, the only one dedicated to Lenin outside Russia.
Today the mills are almost all silent, but the buildings have been artfully preserved and filled with shops, museums, bars and restaurants; the green banks of the waterside providing a counterpoint to the red brick industrial factories.
Just two miles from the centre is Pispala, originally the workers’ quarter, its colourful wooden houses clinging to the hillside with roads, gardens and stairways snaking in between.
In the huge complex that was once the Finlayson cotton mill, the Werstas Museum details the history of the Finnish textile industry with 25 machines on display, plus items produced by the Tampere textile industry over the years.
In pride of place is the Sulzer steam engine, dating from 1900; still in its original location, in the heart of the original mill, it is the biggest steam engine ever used in Finland.
On the country’s independence after the Russian Revolution, the town was at the centre of the brutal civil war between the workers, and the conservative landowners and industrialists. The Battle for Tampere in 1918, with 300,000 soldiers involved, was one of the most decisive military engagements.
In the museum, black and white photographs illustrate the terrible carnage. With the help of German troops the landowners and industrialists won the battle and eventually the war. The losers were the workers and, even now, it’s an event which still divides families.
But Tampere is not just about industrial heritage and conflict. In the heart of the city, the spacious Central Square was built when Tampere was Russian and its influence is obvious in the architecture.
On the east is the Tampere Theatre built in 1912 and opposite is the grand neo-Renaissance Old Town Hall, still used for festive occasions.
The 120-year-old art nouveau Market Hall showcases the region’s specialities, including fresh fish and a selection of marvellous cheeses.
Echoing the city’s Russian past are the seven cupolas of the Byzantine Orthodox church, known locally as the Onion Church, the inside covered in icons.
There’s only a small orthodox population and the nearby Lutheran Cathedral is the place of worship for most churchgoers; while Tampere does have a small Jewish population, there hasn’t been an active community for 40 years.
The Lutheran Cathedral is a great example of the Finnish national romantic style and what’s most striking are the murals by Hugo Simberg. They created a furore back in 1907 and it’s easy to see why — the Garland of Life depicts 12 giant naked boys, spaced along the gallery walls.
Sauna came to Finland over two thousand years ago and now there are over three million in the country, more than one for every two Finns. Recognised by Unesco as part of the country’s intangible cultural heritage, Tampere now designates itself as the Sauna Capital of the World.
Aficionados have a choice of over 50 public saunas in the region, including Kuuma, right next to the Central Square. Upstairs is a café-restaurant with terrace and below are two saunas, open all year round.
When you can’t take the heat, you plunge into the refreshing waters of the Pyhäjärvi Lake, in a corralled pool area.
Finland has over 188,000 lakes and around 180,000 islands, many located in the Lakeland district, the largest of its kind in Europe, which surrounds Tampere. Imagine a blue labyrinth of lakes, islands, rivers and canals, interspersed with forests and low rise hills.
Around 55 miles to the north-east, the beautiful lakeside town of Mänttä-Vilppula was home to another industrial complex, based around a paper pulp mill.
The founder’s nephew, Gösta Serlachius amassed a unique art collection here, now on permanent display at the town’s Art Museum Gösta on Lake Melasjärvi.
His grand manor house is home to mainly Finnish artworks but a modern wood pavilion hosts temporary exhibitions, including one dedicated to Banksy, with over a hundred works borrowed from various collections featuring well-known examples of the street artist’s early production.
You don’t need to travel that far to explore the lakes though: the tourist office has devised a number of trails, which link with ferry services in the summer and there are e-bikes to hire.
For day trips you’ve a choice of the two large lakes, Pyhäjärvi or Näsijärvi, on either side of Tampere with bike paths following the lakeshore. Restaurants and tea shops mean you’re never short of refreshment, plus saunas for a true Finnish experience after a day cycling.
I go south and end up at Lempäälä, as the evening sun is hanging low over Pyhäjärvi Lake. Mikkola is no ordinary sauna but a traditional smoke sauna which they’ve been heating for six hours.
There’s no chimney so, as the wood burns, smoke fills the room. When it reaches the appropriate temperature, the fire is extinguished and the room is ventilated.
That’s when I step in and salve my weary limbs. The moist heat and steam rise from the stove, mingling with the scents of smoke and tar, and I’m soon at peace. Now the challenge is to rush out and jump naked into the cold lake.
Before the sun sets, I summon up all my courage, run along the jetty and plunge into the water — it’s exhilarating, and I feel I’ve earned my spurs as a real Finn.
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