Tampere

Tampere

Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries.

Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity.

Helsinki can be reached in 1.5 hours by train and 2 hours by car. The distance to Turku is approximately the same. Tampere Airport is the third-busiest airport in Finland, with 800,000 passengers annually.

Tampere was founded as a market place on the banks of the Tammerkoski channel in 1775 by Gustav III of Sweden and four years later, 1 October 1779, Tampere was granted full city rights. At this time, it was a rather small town, consisting of only a few square kilometres of land around the Tammerkoski.

Tampere grew as a major market town and industrial centre in the 19th century. During the latter half of 19th century Tampere had almost half of Finland's industrial labour. The town's industrial nature in the 19th and 20th centuries gave it the nickname "Manchester of the North", Manse for short (in Finnish).

Tampere was the centre of many important political events of Finland in the early 20th century. On 1 November 1905, during the general strike, the famous Red Declaration was proclaimed on the Keskustori, the central square of Tampere, subsequently leading to universal suffrage in Finland and the Tsar of Russia granting larger freedoms to Finns. In 1918, when Finland had recently gained independence, Tampere also played a major role, being one of the strategically important scenes during the Civil War in Finland (28 January–15 May 1918). Tampere was a red stronghold during the war, with Hugo Salmela in command. White forces captured Tampere, seizing about 10,000 Red prisoners on 6 April.

Prevalent in Tampere's post-World War II municipal politics was the so-called Brothers-in-Arms Axis (aseveliakseli), the alliance of conservatives and social democrats against the communists and Agrarian party. During this era some of the most renowned city managers of Tampere were Erkki Napoleon Lindfors (who was responsible for many ambitious construction projects such as the Näsinneula tower and the construction of the suburb of Hervanta, Tampere's "daughter town"), Pekka Paavola (who gained some notoriety in corruption scandals) and Jarmo Rantanen. From 2007 on, Tampere switched to a new model of having a mayor and four deputy mayors, chosen for a periods of two years. Timo P. Nieminen was elected as the first mayor of Tampere for the years 2007–09.

After World War II, Tampere was enlarged by joining some neighbouring areas. Messukylä was incorporated in 1947, Lielahti in 1950, Aitolahti in 1966 and finally Teisko in 1972. Tampere was known for its textile and metal industries, but these have been largely replaced by information technology and telecommunications during the 1990s. The technology centre Hermia in Hervanta is home to many companies in these fields.

Although Tampere is lacking some of the international high end boutiques and brand stores, there are still lots of shopping opportunities from small specialized shops to malls. As Finland is generally quite an expensive country, one would do best to concentrate on finding high quality Finnish products, such as textiles, clothes, glassware, design and home decor. Notably, practically all stores are closed on Sundays.

Grocery stores in Tampere (and in Finland) are usually quite easy to find. There are grocery departments in the bottom floors of all three department stores downtown (see below). In addition, look for e.g. K-market, S-market, Sale, Siwa, and Lidl for small to mid-size grocery stores. Supermarkets (Prisma,Citymarket) are large stores located outside the city centre, and you can buy a range of different products (e.g. food, clothes, electronics) there. For emergencies, small Siwa grocery store at Puutarhakatu 14 in downtown has the best hours: 06-24 every day. Alcohol, however, can only be sold from 09-21. Wine or strong liquor are only sold at Alko stores that are closed on Sundays. They are usually located next to larger grocery stores and the three department stores.

Tampere is (in)famous for its black sausage (mustamakkara), a sausage made of blood and barley. The most authentic way to sample it is from one of the stalls at the Tammelantori or Laukontori markets which will serve it with a dab of lingonberry jam and a carton of milk on the side. Order by price, not weight: "two euros" will get you a nice hefty chunk. Both markets close by 2PM and are closed Sundays too. If you can't make it to the stalls, go to the Market Hall, or as a last resort, to the food sections of any of the three department stores. 

For inexpensive fast food, you can always visit local fast food chains Hesburger (McDonald's with added mayo) and Kotipizza pizzeria (which are actually rather good - they win international pizza contests on regular basis) that have restaurants everywhere. Ethnic pizza and kebab restaurants can be found throughout the city, and they are usually even cheaper than the fast food restaurants. Some restaurants stay open as late as 5am in weekends.

Many of the more pricey restaurants also have lunch specials under €10 during weekdays, most notably the lunch at Ravintola C is a steal at 10-12€. Lunch can also be bought in several places inside Kauppahalli market hall in Keskustori central square, and in University restaurants located on downtown campus.

There's no shortage of nightlife in Tampere, and better yet, it's all concentrated to a very manageable area downtown. Virtually all the noteworthy establishment are located either on the main street Hämeenkatu or on the adjacent streets. Therefore, pub crawling is ridiculously easy and there is virtually no fear of getting lost even on the morning hours.

As anywhere in Finland, most pubs close at 2 am, but nightclubs stay open until 4, at least on weekends. People enter the clubs quite early by central European standards, and the queues are the longest around 11. Most clubs have an entrance fee of 3-10€ plus an added mandatory service fee of 2-3€. The legal drinking age in Finland is 18, but some places have even more strict limit at 20 or 22. Dresscode is rather informal even in the highest end clubs (one might even say that there are no high end clubs in Tampere), but locals still often try to dress to impress.

Bartenders in night clubs are usually not very knowledgeable and drinks are almost always poorly made, if available at all. This is probably because of the hardcore alcohol laws in Finland that ban all drinks with more than 4cl of strong alcohol. On the other hand, there might be a rather good selection of shooters at clubs and Finnish and foreign beers in pubs. While the standard big brewery Finnish lagers are rather bland, new and exciting microbrews are popping up every year. Be sure to give them a try somewhere along the way. Nearly every decent pub has some of them nowadays, but you won't find them in clubs. Also, a kind of Finnish drink speciality are ciders and long drinks (gin and grapefruit flavoured mild drink) which are flavoured with (sometimes exotic) artificial essences. The ciders do not bear a strong resemblance to their Continental European counterparts.

                                                        Tampere’s Top 5:

   
1. The Tampere Cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Tampere. The building was designed in the National Romantic style by Lars Sonck, and built between 1902 and 1907. The cathedral is famous for its frescoes, painted by the symbolist Hugo Simberg between 1905 and 1906. The paintings aroused considerable adverse criticism in their time, featuring versions of Simberg's The Wounded Angel and The Garden of Death. Of particular controversy was Simberg's painting of a winged serpent on a red background in the highest point of the ceiling, which some contemporaries interpreted as a symbol of sin and corruption. The altar-piece, representing the future resurrection of people of all races, was painted by Magnus Enckell.
2. Tammerkoski rapids crossing Hämeenkatu just by the central square, split the centre into east and west side. The rapids run from Lake Näsijärvi north of Tampere to Lake Pyhäjärvi in the south. The height difference between the two lakes is 18 meters, but the formerly thundering heart of Tampere now flows through the city centre rather peacefully, because of the several hydroelectric dams harnessing its power.
3. The Tampere Hall  is the largest concert and congress centre in the Nordic countries, located in the southern edge of Sorsapuisto, in the centre of Tampere. Opposite of the Tampere Hall is the main building of the University of Tampere, and the Tampere railway station is only half a kilometre away. The main auditorium has capacity of 1,756 seats. Due to its central location, Tampere Hall hosts many small fairs, including the first ever Finncon in Tampere. The Tampere Opera and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra are also based there. As of the year 2012, the Tampere Hall has been nominated five times as the best congress venue in Finland.
4. Särkänniemi is an adventure park in Tampere. The park features an aquarium, a planetarium, a children's zoo, an art museum, an observation tower (Näsinneula), an amusement park, and the world's northernmost dolphinarium. Särkänniemi is the most popular amusement park in Finland. Särkänniemi has seven rollercoasters: inverted coaster Tornado, flying coaster Trombi, MotoGee, Jet Star, Half Pipe, family coaster Vauhtimato ("Speedy Worm") and Tukkijoki ("Flume Ride"). Särkänniemi is owned by the city of Tampere.
5. Näsinneula is an observation tower overseeing Lake Näsijärvi. It was built in 1970–1971 and was designed by Pekka Ilveskoski. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries at a height of 168 metres (551 ft). The tower opened in 1971 and is located in the Särkänniemi amusement park. There is a revolving restaurant in the tower 124 metres (407 ft) above the ground; one revolution takes 45 minutes. The design of Näsinneula was inspired by the Space Needle in Seattle. The idea of a revolving restaurant was taken from the Puijo tower in Kuopio. The base of the tower is at about 15 metres (49 ft) of elevation from lake Näsijärvi. There are two elevators, made by Valmet-Schlieren. The elevators go up to a height of 120 metres (390 ft), to the Pilvilinna ("Cloud Castle") café. The restaurant (called Näsinneula) is one story higher. The elevator ride to the top takes 27 seconds with a maximum speed of 6 m/s (20 ft/s) and the elevators carry a maximum of 16 people. The elevators are still the fastest public elevators in Finland. In the event of a blackout, the tower's own diesel emergency generator will start. In an emergency people can be evacuated with stairs that have 700 steps.