Tampere

Tampere (Swedish: Tammerfors) is a city in Finland and the provincial center of Pirkanmaa, located on the shores of Lake Näsijärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi. Tampere is the third largest municipality in Finland in terms of population and the second largest urban area in Finland and its neighboring municipalities. Tampere is also the largest inland city in the Nordic countries in terms of population. The city of Tampere has a population of 238,671 and the center of Tampere 330,711 inhabitants. The population of the Tampere metropolitan area, which includes seven districts in addition to Tampere, on 31 December 2019 was 393,941.

The most central part of Tampere's city center is located in the lake and ridge area on the isthmus between Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, through which Tammerkoski flows from Näsijärvi to Pyhäjärvi. Tammerkoski's waterfall is 18 meters high. The red-brick factory buildings on its shores tell the story of Tampere's industrial history. Tampere is historically Finland's first and largest industrial city. The Tammerkoski rapids landscape has been named one of Finland's national landscapes. Gustav III founded Tampere in 1779, but the city did not begin to grow until after the mid-19th century, when it became a major industrial center. The textile industry in particular was large. Since then, industrial production has moved out of the city, and Tampere's economy has focused on services and high-tech companies.

Tampere is also a city of culture and sports. Tampereen Teatteri and Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, one of the oldest theaters in Finland, operate there. There are many museums and exhibitions in the Vapriikki Museum Center, but the most important tourist destination is the Särkänniemi amusement park. In popular culture, Tampere is especially known for the music style named Manserock. Black sausage is considered a local dish. Several main sports teams play in Tampere, and the city is often considered the “cradle” of Finnish hockey. The city's own teams are Ilves and Tappara.

Tampere and its environs belong to the historical province of Satakunta. The area belonged to Häme County from 1831 to 1997, and over time it has often been considered to belong to Häme as a province. For example, in the New Encyclopedia published in the 1960s, the Tampere region is presented as part of the then Häme province. Around the 1950s, Tampere and its surroundings began to establish itself as their own province of Pirkanmaa. Tampere became the center of Pirkanmaa, and in the early days of the province, Tammermaa was also used several times in its early days - for example, in the Finland Handbook published in 1968.

 

History

Early history to the founding of the city

The Tammerkoski region was permanently settled around the 7th century, when settlers from the west settled on the Takahuhti farmlands. The settlement history of the Tampere region focuses on the parishes of Messukylä and Pirkkala, whose individual houses were located in the later area of ​​the city already in the Middle Ages. There were about 200 houses in the area of ​​present-day Tampere in the Middle Ages.

Erik Edner proposed the founding of a city at Tammerkoski at the 1771–1772 Diet. Gustav III founded Tampere on 1 October 1779. Tampere was located in a remote hinterland, and its inhabitants were farmers. The Tammerkoski still flowed almost freely, but the king believed that it would help the city prosper and bring tax revenue to the crown. Tampere was granted the rights of a free city. Anyone could move to the city and work in any profession they wanted. However, land in the city was not allowed to be cultivated. Income was earned from trade and handicrafts, as there were no factories yet.

 

Industrialization

Although entrepreneurship was free and Tampere enjoyed significant tariff advantages, industrialization was slow. Finland was annexed to Russia in 1809, when Tampere still had less than a thousand inhabitants.

The Scotsman James Finlayson founded a factory in Tampere in 1820, originally intended to produce spinning machines. Finlayson was unable to sell his machines, which is why the factory switched to spinning cotton. Finlayson sold his factory to St. Petersburg businessmen in 1836, which marked the beginning of industrialization.

In the early 19th century, Tampere was still a loosely built rural village. Its landmark was the Old Church designed by Charles Bass in 1824. The city center received its current structure when the Empire-style town plan designed by Carl Ludvig Engel was approved.

The cotton mill employed 2,000 people in Tampere in the 1850s, and in 1856 the city had 4,000 inhabitants. Industry gradually began to diversify, and alongside Finlayson, the Tampella machine shop and linen factory, the Frenckell paper mill and the Tampere yarn factory came to the city. Finland's first electric light was introduced at Finlayson's weaving mill in 1882.

The population and area of ​​Tampere grew rapidly in the late 19th century. The population grew from 7,000 to 36,000 during the 1870s and 1900s. Tampere's economic boom was also reflected in the construction of many impressive apartment buildings. Due to the growth in the population, new areas were annexed to Tampere. The construction of Pispala was also accelerated by the completion of the Tampere–Pori railway in 1893.

 

From the Civil War to the Second World War

Tampere grew into a significant economic and political centre, and in the early 20th century the city's residents were notably active in, among other things, the temperance, revival and women's movements.

During the civil war that broke out after Finland gained independence, Tampere was the scene of decisive battles in the spring of 1918. During the civil war, Tampere was under the control of the Reds. As the Whites approached the city, Tampere turned into a chaotic military camp. In the two-week battle for control, approximately 2,000 people lost their homes. Kyttälä and Tammela suffered the most in the fighting.

Although independent Finland lost its Russian market, Tampere remained a centre of the textile industry. Finlayson, Pellavatehdas and Suomen Trikoo were among the largest in the Nordic countries. In addition, the State Aircraft Factory was moved to the city in the late 1930s, and the Klingendahl Wool Factory, Tampere Weaving Industry and Pyynikki Brewery were established in the city. At the same time, several suburban areas were created around the city.

As an important industrial city, Tampere was bombed by the Soviet Air Force several times during the Winter War, but the city was not bombed once during the Continuation War.

The production of war reparations products promoted Tampere's metal industry, which attracted a large working-age population to the city. With the strong population growth, new residential areas were built, especially on the east side of Tammerkoski. Messukylä was annexed to Tampere in 1947 and Lielahti in 1950. In 1937, most of what is now West Tampere, including Pispala, was transferred from North Pirkkala (now Nokia) to Tampere. Kaleva and Kissanmaa were built in the 1950s and 1960s. The 100,000-person mark was passed in 1950.

 

The structural transformation of the city

In the 1960s, Tampere began to be built into a modern industrial city. As car traffic increased, a motorway was built to the south and bypass roads around the city centre were built. In terms of population, Tampere overtook Turku as the second largest city in Finland. The focus of residential construction shifted to the west and south. Between 1965 and 1975, housing had to be built in Tampere for around 30,000 new residents. Suburbs were built on different sides of the city, for example, Hervantaa began to be built in 1973.

Tampere became a university city when the University of Social Sciences moved from Helsinki to Tampere in 1960 and became the University of Tampere in 1966. Tampere's area quadrupled in the 1960s and 1970s, when the municipalities of Aitolahti and Teisko were annexed.

The “chimney industry” of Tampere city centre began to decline in the 1980s and 1990s, when European industrial production began to move to low-cost countries or to the outskirts of cities. Tampere coped relatively well with the structural change, when the city began to invest in high-tech products. A significant opening was the Hermia Science Park, built next to Tampere University of Technology in 1986. Nokia’s research and development unit was also located there.

Tampere has continued to grow in the 2000s, and the city broke the 200,000-population barrier in 2003. The 250,000-population barrier will be broken in 2023.

 

Geography

Location and area

The total area of ​​Tampere is 689.59 square kilometers, of which 524.89 square kilometers are land and 164.70 square kilometers are water. The northernmost point of Tampere is located in Vankavesi, Teiskon, the southernmost at the eastern end of Lake Hervantajärvi, the easternmost at the northeastern corner of Lake Paalijärvi, Teiskon, and the westernmost at the southeastern corner of Lake Haukijärvi.

The highest point of Tampere is located in Kaana, Teiskon. The highest point is 211 meters above sea level at Koskelan. The lowest point is in a depression in Lake Pyhäjärvi, south of the Pyynikki Islands. It is 32 meters above sea level.

 

Water bodies

There are approximately 160 lakes in the municipality of Tampere. Two-thirds of them are less than ten hectares in size. Approximately ten percent are lakes over 50 hectares in size. The largest lakes are Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Näsijärvi is the 16th largest lake in Finland: it is 44 kilometres long, and its waters extend into the municipalities of Ylöjärvi and Ruovesi. It is formed from three large ridges, Koljonselä, Näsinselä and Vankavesi.

Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi are connected by the Tammerkoski rapids, which were formed around 5,400–6,900 years ago and formed at the lowest point of the Pyynikinharju ridge. The rapids have three waterfalls, and the water falls 18 metres from Näsijärvi to Pyhäjärvi.

Other central lakes in the inner city of Tampere include the 145-hectare Särkijärvi, the 142-hectare Kaukajärvi, the 83-hectare Hervantajärvi, the 64-hectare Iidesjärvi and the 63-hectare Tohloppi.

Velaattajärvi is the largest lake located entirely within Tampere.

 

Rock and soil

The soil of the city of Tampere is exceptionally rich in moraine ridges compared to other municipalities in the region. Moraine is the most common soil type in Tampere. Its thickness is most often 1–4 meters.

The Inner Finland Marginal Formation Zone runs through the northern parts of the municipality of Tampere, and in the southern parts there is a seam ridge about a kilometer wide, which runs from northwest to southeast and rises 30–60 meters higher than its surroundings. Its parts include, among others, Epilänharju and Pyynikinharju, which is said to be the highest gravel ridge in the world.

The bedrock of Tampere is composed of mica schist and migmatite. Tampere's building stone deposits are diverse: in addition to traditional granite, there are abundant quartz diorite, tonalite, mica schist and mica gneiss.

 

Climate

Finland belongs to the boreal intermediate climate. Tampere's climate is mainly continental, but the large lakes also bring maritime influences. The wind blows predominantly from the south and southwest. Due to the influence of the Gulf Stream, Tampere's climate is also slightly warmer than in other parts of the world at similar latitudes. July is the warmest month in Tampere, with an average temperature of around 16.0 degrees Celsius. The average temperature in February is −7.3 degrees Celsius.

It rains on average 7–8 days a month in Tampere in spring, and 10–11 days a month at other times. The monthly rainfall is 25 mm in February, and over 70 mm in July and August. There are an average of 1,661 hours of sunshine per year, and the growing season is 137 days.

Lake Näsijärvi is frozen over for an average of 140 days during the winter.

 

Living nature

The forests of Pirkanmaa and Tampere belong to the southern boreal region of the coniferous forest zone. In the forests owned by the City of Tampere, the most common habitat type is fresh coniferous forest. In the Teisko–Aitolahti area, the most common habitat is blueberry-type coniferous forest, which accounts for about 43 percent of the forests. Grove-like forests account for about 24 percent, lingonberry forests for about 13 percent, and groves for about eight percent.

Tampere belongs to the zone of recreational oases. Most bogs are small and narrow, and they have arisen in depressions in the moraine and rocky terrain, along streams and on the shores of lakes. The most common bog types are fens and bogs. The most mires are found in the northeastern parts of Tampere.

 

Protected areas

The City of Tampere owns protected areas under the Nature Conservation Act, both in Tampere and to some extent in other municipalities. The total area of ​​these areas is 593 hectares. The areas represent diverse habitat types: old natural forests, groves, wetlands, bird lakes and butterfly meadows. The Kintulammi nature reserve in Teiskon is the largest in Tampere. Its area is 608.5 hectares.

 

Tampere city centre

The city centre of Tampere, as well as the districts of Pyynikki, Ylä-Pispala and Ala-Pispala, are located on the isthmus between Lake Pyhäjärvi and Lake Näsijärvi. Lake Näsijärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi are connected by the harnessed Tammerkoski rapids, which originate from Lake Näsijärvi and flow through the city centre of Tampere. The city's location on the edge of a rapid that produces hydroelectric power, between two long waterways, was one of the main reasons for its founding in the 1770s.

The streets of Tampere city centre form a typical grid pattern. On the western edge of the city centre runs a north-south parkway, Hämeenpuisto, which leads from the shores of Lake Pyhäjärvi to near Lake Näsijärvi. The wide Hämeenkatu leads east-west from the railway station to Hämeenpuisto and crosses the Tammerkoski rapids along the Hämeensilta bridge. The longest street in the city centre is also parallel to Hämeenkatu, Satakunnankatu, which extends from Rautatienkatu to Pyynikki and crosses Tammerkoski via Satakunnansilta. Tampere Central Market is located on the west bank of Tammerkoski near Hämeensilta. The traffic centre of Tampere is considered to be the intersection of Itsenäisyydenkatu, Teiskontie, Sammonkatu and Kaleva puistotie in the Liisankallio district of Kaleva.