Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is in the Finnish Lakeland. Tampere's population is about 263,000, while the metropolitan area has a population of about 428,000. It is Finland's 3rd most populous municipality and the second most populous urban area in the country after the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries and Fennoscandia. The urban area has a population of about 370,000. Tampere is considered the most important urban, economic and cultural centre in the whole of inland Finland.
Tampere and its surroundings are part of the historic province of Satakunta, but the area belonged to the province of Häme (Tavastia) from 1831 to 1997 and it has often been considered part of that province. For example, in Uusi tietosanakirja, published in the 1960s, the Tampere subregion is presented as part of the then province of Tavastia.
Between 1775 and 1870, Tammerkoski rapids formed the border between the former province of Häme and the province of Turku and Pori. The city of Tampere was on the western side of the rapids, but the eastern bank was attached to the city in 1877.
Around the 1950s, Tampere and its surroundings began to establish themselves as a separate province known as Pirkanmaa. Tampere became the centre of Pirkanmaa, and Tammermaa was also used several times in the province's early days, for example in the Suomi-käsikirja published in 1968.
Tampere is wedged between two lakes, Lake Näsijärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi, with an 18 m (59 ft) difference in water level, and the rapids that connect them, Tammerkoski, have been an important source of power throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is known as the "Manchester of the North" because of its past as a centre of Finnish industry, which has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock". Tampere has also been officially declared the "Sauna Capital of the World" because it has the most public saunas in the world.
Helsinki is about 160 km (100 mi) south of Tampere and can be reached by Pendolino high-speed train in 1 hour 31 minutes and by car in two hours. The distance to Turku, Finland's third most populous urban area, is about the same. The Tampere–Pirkkala Airport is the eighth busiest airport in Finland, with more than 230,000 passengers using it in 2017. Tampere is also an important transit route for three Finnish highways: Highway 3 (E12), Highway 9 (E63) and Highway 12. The Tampere light rail had two lines when it started operating in 2021.
Tampere is often rated as the most popular city in Finland. The development of Tampere and its metropolitan area has continued into the 21st century, largely because Tampere is one of Finland's most attractive cities. In 2023, Tampere won the first prize at the Smart City World Congress in Barcelona, competing in the category of enabling technologies, while also receiving recognition for the use of technological solutions for the benefit of residents and businesses.
Etymology
Although the name Tampere derives from the Tammerkoski rapids (both the city and the rapids are called Tammerfors in Swedish), the origin and meaning of the Tammer- part of the name has been the subject of much debate. Linguist Ánte Aikio accepts the "straightforward" etymology of Rahkonen and Heikkilä in Proto-Samic *Tëmpël(kōškë), *tëmpël meaning "deep, slow part of a stream" and *kōškë "rapids" (related to the Finnish koski), which has become the most accepted explanation in academia, according to the Institute for the Languages of Finland. Other theories are that it comes from the Swedish word damber, meaning milldam or that it comes from the ancient Scandinavian words þambr ("fat-bellied") and þambion ("swollen belly"), possibly referring to the rapids' shape. Another suggestion links the name to the Swedish word Kvatemberdagar, or more colloquially Tamperdagar, which refers to the Ember Days of the Western Christian liturgical calendar. The Finnish word for oak, tammi, has also been suggested, although Tampere is outside the natural range of the European oak.
Heraldry
Tampere's first coat of arms was designed by Arvid von Cederwald in 1838, while the current coat of arms, created in 1960, was designed by Olof Eriksson. Changing the coat of arms was controversial, and even after the change there were occasional calls for the old coat of arms to be restored. The new coat of arms was also described in letters to the editor as Soviet-style because of its colours.
The blazon of the old coat of arms has either not survived or was never made, but the current coat of arms has been described as follows: "In the red field, a corrugated counter-bar, above which is accompanied by a piled hammer, and below a caduceus; all gold". Its colours are the same as in the coat of arms of Pirkanmaa. The hammer, which looks like the first letter of the city's name, T, symbolises Tampere's early industry, the caduceus its commercial activities, and the wavy counter-bar the Tammerkoski rapids that divide Tampere's industrial and commercial areas.
The city received its first seal in 1803, depicting the city's buildings of the time and Tammerkoski.
History
Early history
The earliest known permanent settlements around Tammerkoski were established in the 7th century, when settlers from the west of the region began to farm land in Takahuhti, an area largely inhabited by the Tavastian tribes. The population remained small for many centuries. By the 16th century, the villages of Messukylä and Takahuhti had become the area's largest settlements. Other nearby villages were Laiskola, Pyynikkälä and Hatanpää. There had been a marketplace in the Pispala area for centuries, where the bourgeoisie from Turku in particular traded. In 1638, Governor-General Per Brahe the Younger ordered that two markets be held in Tammerkoski every year, the autumn market on St Peter's Day in August and the winter one on Matias's Day in February. In 1708 the market was moved from the outskirts of Tammerkoski to Harju, and in 1758 from there to Pispala. The first industries in the Pirkanmaa region in the 17th century were mainly watermills and sawmills. In the 18th century other industries began to develop, as several small ironworks, the Tammerkoski distillery, and the Otavala spinning school were established.
Founding and industrialization
Before the founding of the city of Tampere, the neighbouring parish of Pirkkala (from which the current region of Pirkanmaa takes its name) was the most administratively important parish in the area throughout the Middle Ages. This changed in the 18th century when Erik Edner, a Finnish pastor, proposed the establishment of a town on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in 1771–1772; it was officially founded as a market town in 1775 by Gustav III of Sweden, and on 1 October 1779, Tampere was granted full town rights. At that time it was rather small, founded on the lands of the Tammerkoski manor, and its inhabitants were mainly farmers. As farming was forbidden within the city limits, the inhabitants began to rely on other means of earning a living, mainly trade and crafts. In 1809, when the Grand Duchy of Finland was formed, Tampere still had less than a thousand inhabitants.
In the 19th century, Tampere grew into an important market town and industrial centre; its industrialisation was greatly influenced by the Finlayson textile factory, founded in 1820 by the Scottish industrialist James Finlayson. By 1850, the factory employed around 2000 people, while the city's population had grown to 4000. Other notable industrial establishments that followed Finlayson's success in the 1800s were the Tampella blast furnace, machine factory and flax mill, the Frenckell paper mill and the Tampere broadcloth factory. Tampere's population grew rapidly at the end of the 19th century, from around 7,000 in 1870 to 36,000 in 1900. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tampere was a city of workers and women, with a third of the population being factory workers and more than half women. At the same time, the area of the city increased almost sevenfold and impressive apartment blocks were built in the centre of Tampere between modest wooden houses. The stone houses gave Tampere a modern look. The construction of the sewerage and water supply networks and the introduction of electric lighting were further steps towards modernisation.
Tampere was the first Nordic city to introduce electric lighting for general use in 1882. The railway connection to Tampere from the extension of the Helsinki-Hämeenlinna line (now part of the Main Line) via Toijala was opened to the public on 22 June 1876.
The world-famous Nokia Corporation, a multinational telecommunications company, also had its beginnings in the Tammerkoski area; the company's history dates back to 1865, when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill on the banks of the rapids, and a second pulp mill was opened in 1868 near the neighbouring town of Nokia, where there were better hydroelectric resources.
Geopolitical significance
Tampere was the centre of many important political events in the early 20th century, such as the 1905 conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), led by Vladimir Lenin, held in the Tampere Workers' Hall during their flight from Russia, where it was decided, among other things, to launch an armed insurrection that eventually led to the October 1917 revolution in the Russian Empire. Also, on 1 November 1905, during the General Strike, the famous Red Declaration was proclaimed in Keskustori.
After Finland gained its full independence, Tampere played an important role in the 1918 Civil War, being one of the most strategically important places for the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (FSWR) during the Finnish Civil War (28 January - 15 May 1918); the city was the most important industrial city in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century, with a huge working population. Tampere was a Red stronghold during the war, commanded by Hugo Salmela. White forces led by General Mannerheim captured the city after the Battle of Tampere, taking about 10,000 Red prisoners on 6 April 1918.
During the Winter War, Tampere was bombed several times by the Soviet Union. The reason for the bombing of Tampere was that the city was an important railway junction and was also home to the State Aircraft Factory and the Tampella Factory, which produced ammunition and weapons, including grenade launchers. The most devastating bombing took place on 2 March 1940, when nine people were killed and 30 wounded. In addition, ten buildings were destroyed and 30 damaged that day.
Postwar period and modern day
The dominant force in Tampere's municipal politics after the Second World War was the Brothers-in-Arms Axis (aseveliakseli), which consisted mainly of the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats. While the Centre Party was the largest political force in the Finnish countryside, it had no practical relevance in Tampere.
After the Second World War, Tampere was enlarged by the incorporation of some neighbouring areas. Messukylä was incorporated in 1947, Lielahti in 1950, Aitolahti in 1966 and Teisko in 1972. Already in 1937 the most part of modern western Tampere, including Pispala, was annexed to the city from North Pirkkala (today Nokia). Tampere passed the 100,000 population mark in 1950. Tampere was long known for its textile and metal industries, but these were largely replaced by information technology and telecommunications in the 1990s. The Hermia technology centre in Hervanta is home to many companies in these fields. Yleisradio began broadcasting its second television channel, Yle TV2, from Ristimäki, Tampere, in 1965, making Finland the first of the Nordic countries to receive a second television channel, after Sweden's SVT2 began broadcasting four years later. Tampere became a university city when the Social University moved from Helsinki to Tampere in 1960, becoming the University of Tampere in 1966. In 1979, the Tampere-Pirkkala airport was opened 13 km (8.1 mi) from the centre of Tampere on the Pirkkala side of the city.
At the turn of the 1990s, Tampere's industry underwent a major structural change, as the production of Tampella and Tampere's textile industry in particular was heavily focused on bilateral trade with the Soviet Union, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the companies lost their main customers. As a result of the sudden change and the depression of the early 1990s, Finlayson and Suomen Trikoo had to scale down their operations drastically. Tampella went bankrupt. But although the change left a huge amount of vacant industrial space in the city centre, in the early 2000s it was gradually put to other uses, and today's Tampere cityscape is mainly characterised by strong IT companies, most notably Nokia's Tampere R&D units.
Geography
Tampere is part of the Pirkanmaa region and is surrounded by the municipalities of Kangasala, Lempäälä, Nokia, Orivesi, Pirkkala, Ruovesi and Ylöjärvi. Tampere has 180 lakes larger than 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft), and freshwater bodies cover 24% of its area. The lakes formed as separate basins from Lake Ancylus about 7500–8000 years ago. Tampere's northernmost point is in the Vankavesi Fjard of Teisko, the southernmost at the eastern end of Lake Hervanta, the easternmost at the northeast corner of Lake Paalijärvi of Teisko, and the westernmost at the southeast corner of Lake Haukijärvi near the borders of Ylöjärvi and Nokia. The city centre is surrounded by three lakes, Näsijärvi, Pyhäjärvi, and the much smaller Iidesjärvi. The Tampere region lies in the basin of the Kokemäki River, which flows into the Bothnian Sea through Pori, the capital of the Satakunta region. Tampere's bedrock consists of mica schist and migmatite, and its building stone deposits are diverse: in addition to the traditional granite, there is an abundance of quartz diorite, tonalite, mica schist and mica gneiss. One of Tampere's most striking geographic features is the Pyynikki Ridge (Pyynikinharju), a large esker formed from moraine during the Weichselian glaciation. It rises 160 m (520 ft) above sea level and is said to be the largest gravel esker in the world. It is also part of Salpausselkä, a 200 km (120 mi) long ridge system left over from the Ice Age.