Tampere is known for its vast number of museums and their oddness. You can spend days just visiting museums in Tampere, some of which will fulfill your cultural curiosity and some others will surprise you. Let me introduce to you two local museums: one of my favorites in the country, and one that you would not expect to see in Tampere.
The only Moomin Museum in the whole world
Moomin Museum, Tampere
Yliopistonkatu 55, 33100 Tampere, FinlandeAre you familiar with the white round trolls from the Finnish fairytales? They were born out of the imagination of Tove Jansson, and they are called the Moomins. Moomins live in the Moomin Valley in a weird blue tower-house. Moomin Trolls have a significant impact on the Finnish culture; they are the most favorite fairytale characters of so many children and adults. Illustrated by Tove Jansson herself, the Moomin stories are filled with charmingly simple life truths...
But one needs a change sometimes. We take everything too much for granted, including each other
Now, thanks to Tampere, people can dive into the enchanting world of Moomins in the Moomin Museum. You are not allowed to take any photos and videos in the Museum, so forget about social media for a while and just enjoy it. From the first step, you will be swallowed into a magical atmosphere: the lightning, the sounds, the art objects... The concept of the Moomin Museum is pretty interesting: you get to visit each of the books about Moomins, you can read and listen to them on different languages, find out what happened to the beloved characters through peculiar scale models, and basically experience and live in the stories. Besides, the Moomin Museum will let you visit Moominpappa's hat and discover a real Moomin house. The Museum also holds changing exhibitions, a reading room full of, as expected, Moomin books, and a creative studio organizing workshops. I must tell you, this is one of the most enchanting places I have visited!
An unexpected museum in Tampere: the Lenin Museum
On a usual street of Tampere, in a typical building, you will find the Lenin Museum. It seems weird to be here, in Finland, after all the harsh history with Russia. You will lurk in and soon find out that this place totally makes sense. See, it is right here, in this same building that many years ago Lenin and Stalin had a meeting. Here, they decided to make a revolution and agreed that Finland would get independent if their plans worked out. We all know how it worked out: the hard part of Soviet History still lives in many minds and also here, in this building in Tampere.
In the Lenin Museum, you can learn about history, admire the retro fashion of the Soviet times, and be mesmerized by some objects from that period. You will certainly understand the chaotic nature of the Soviet Union and get a new perspective on the relationships between countries back then. I found surprisingly cool the collaboration of Soviet-time objects with the multimedia material that is there to inform and entertain you. Lenin Museum is for sure informative but in a very cool and colorful way. The earrings with the dictator's face were too much, though...
Lenin Museum, Tampere
Hämeenpuisto 28, 33200 Tampere, FinlandeTampere is full of peculiar surprises, and the Moomin & Lenin museums are definitely two of them. Do not miss the chance to check them out!
Want to plan a trip here? Talk to AI travel assistant Maya.
The author
Pauliina Flam
Plan a trip with Maya - your AI travel assistant
