History

Founded in 1779, Tampere is a relatively young city, but it has been proven that the narrow isthmus of Tammerkoski was first inhabited as early as eight thousand years ago. A tool part from that era has been found in Pispala. The first inhabitants, however, could not admire the rapids now flowing through the heart of the city; for them, the present-day city centre was nothing but sea bottom. After the Ice Age, the surface of the ancient sea of Yoldia had settled high up the slopes of Pyynikin Harju. The bedrock under Tampere used to belong to the oldest mountain range in the world, formed more than a billion years ago.

At the end of the Middle Ages, a village named aptly as Koski (Rapids) appeared by the flowing waters. The first mill dams were built across the rapids in the 15th century, probably providing the rapids and the future town with their names. In old Swedish, damber meant dam and tamber referred to taming. By the end of the century, the names of the village (Tambere) and the rapids (Tamberkoski) already carried a close resemblance to the present ones. The first plan for a town was presented in the 1640s on the grounds that the location served as a lively market venue, but serious proposals were not put forward until the parliament of 1771-72, when the head of Lempäälä Congregation, Erik Edner, brought up the idea. The rapids, at the time belonging to the estate of Tammerkoski in the municipality of Messukylä, interested Edner especially as a future industrial site providing natural waterpower.

It was indeed in the lands of Tammerkoski Manor that the town was eventually founded, once King Gustav III of Sweden had first visited the site himself. The King signed the official founding papers in 1779, when a newly-built distillery already attracted people to the banks of Tammerkoski. What followed, however, can hardly be called a migration rush; in 1800 there were still fewer than 500 inhabitants in the new town. Well into the 19th century, Tampere had the appearance of a rural village. Domestic animals wandered freely on the hilly streets lined by little cottages. In 1808, the war between Sweden and Russia reached Tampere, and in March Russian troops quickly took over the area. In the peace treaty ratified the next year, the whole of Finland became part of Russia, but Tsar Alexander I immediately granted Finland autonomy, validating all existing laws from the Swedish era.

Although the original scenario only aimed at a few hundred inhabitants, the migration of industries into the area was expected to result in an international community. The first city plan featured sites for as many as four different churches, meant for different religious groups, but only the (Lutheran) Vanha Kirkko was ever built. At the time, the Messukylän Kirkko, located approximately five kilometres from the Keskustori, was already 300 years old. This originally Catholic monument, dedicated to St. Michael, is by far the oldest building in the city of Tampere today.

Gradually, acriculture as a means of livelihood gave way to handicrafts, but a bigger change originated in 1821 when the Tsar declared the free zone of Tampere. This meant that no limitations whatsoever were placed on industrial enterprises, and manufacturers, Finnish or foreign, could practically forget about all kinds of taxes and tariffs. These exemptions ensured a future rise of industry. The first paper factory had already been built in 1783 by Abraham Häggman in the area by the rapids now called Frenckell. That date initiated the long and gradual development during which the view over the Tammerkoski rapids turned into what it is today: an industrial city landscape of inestimable cultural and historical value.

In the summer of 1819, a Scottish gentleman named James Finlayson paid a visit to Tampere. Immediately, he grew excited about the industrial prospects in the area and sent an application to the Tsar, asking for permission to start a textile factory. Alexander I, who himself had recently visited Tampere, assented and exempted Finlayson from several duties, a reaction that anticipated the free zone decision made two years later. The Finlaysonin Tehdasalue plant soon became the virtual heart of the city; around 1860 almost half of the people of Tampere lived off the factory.

In the 1850s, Finlayson was joined by another major manufacturer, the Tampella linen factory, built on the opposite side of the rapids. A local anecdote has it that Mr. Gustav August Wasastjerna founded the new plant almost by accident. His original plan was to buy a factory from elsewhere, but the deal foundered at the last moment, and suddenly Wasastjerna found himself with a lot of extra cash to invest to the Tampella factory proposed to him by Mr. A. Törngren, a local businessman. During the latter half of the 19th century, the busy and growing factories of Finlayson and Tampella, together with many smaller businesses, made Tampere the most significant industrial city in Finland. At one time, nearly half of all Finnish factory workers lived in the area. Naturally, all these workers needed accommodation; the districts of Amuri and Kyttälä fulfilled this need. Between the years 1860 and 1900, the number of people living in Tampere increased almost sevenfold.

It was in Amuri and Kyttälä that the true nature of the city could be experienced at the time. People had little room for living; at night the floors were completely covered by beds. Most houses were occupied by tenants who took subtenants if there was any extra room. Today, this kind of living is reproduced in the Amurin Työläismuseokortteli, located in the only block of wood houses left of the old working class district. Amuri with its regularly built blocks used to seem very organised in comparison with Kyttälä, a district of winding muddy streets and cottages scattered here and there. Notorious for its scruffy bars, old Kyttälä did not at first officially belong to the then tiny city of Tampere. After the annexation came into force, the district was rebuilt completely according to a new city plan.

The end of the century and the beginning of the next one brought about great changes in the whole world; likewise in Tampere. As regards industry, the city had long been in the vanguard, and its infrastructure kept developing at an increasing speed. Comprehensive water supply and sewer systems, new educational institutions, and the growing cultural sphere created new kinds of lifestyles that included free time activities. The first theatre, Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, came into existence in 1901. Different sports societies were started, one of which was a gymnastics club called Vapaa ('free'), known since 1896 as Tampereen Pyrintö. In a symbolically significant event in March 1882, the first electric light in Finland illuminated the factory of Finlayson. A few years later, dark winter evenings in the city centre were lit up by street lights, although they burned so dimly that their real purpose might have been—as people joked—to warn pedestrians against bumping into the light poles.

In the city centre, the completion of the high-pressure water main gave incentive to replace the old wooden houses with higher buildings. By Keskustori, the new Raatihuone (1890) was soon accompanied by a group of Jugend-style stone buildings, including the Palanderin Talo and the Sumeliuksen Talo. The whole commercial centre, built in the same style, was constructed during a fairly short period of time. Growing wealth, modern inventions, and new engineering skills enabled local businessmen to erect high and impressive buildings, whose National Romantic decorations were strongly influenced by the Finnish flora and fauna. Other landmarks built near the turn of the century include the Student Union House, the Ortodoksinen Kirkko, the Old Customs House, and Tampereen Tuomiokirkko, designed by Lars Sonck and completed in 1907.

Politically, Tampere played an increasingly significant role. During the general strike in 1905, the full Central Square listened to the so-called Red Declaration, and the revolutionary atmosphere grew day by day. However, it was not until after the Finnish Declaration of Independence twelve years later that the city turned into a true battle ground. The new political situation broke the inner tensions of the country, throwing it into a violent civil war. The decisive moments of the war came in April 1918, when the White army succeeded in beating the Red defense in Tampere, taking over the city after weeks of siege. The biggest battle in Scandinavian war history so far left behind thousands of dead, and the prison camps maintained by the winning side produced even more victims.

In independent Finland, Tampere continued with its rapid growth; After World War II, the city population was approaching 100,000. A large part of the increase in population was explained by a growth in area. The western district—containing the unique densely built area of Pispala—belonged to the neighbouring municipality of Nokia until 1937, when it joined Tampere, bringing more than 10,000 new inhabitants to the city and doubling its area. In 1947, Tampere swallowed its mother municipality Messukylä. The last big annexation took place in 1972, when the rural district of Teisko tripled the total area. Scarcely populated Teisko is the reason for Tampere's present failure to qualify as a city according to the official EU criteria; the average population density is too low. Founded on a land stretch of about three square kilometres in 1779, the city now occupies an area almost two hundred times larger.

During the latter half of the 20th century, a rise in the quality of available education had a considerable effect on life in Tampere. The city got a university as late as in the 1960s, when the School of Social Sciences moved from Helsinki to Tampere, to be renamed as Tampereen Yliopisto in 1966. The same period saw the birth of the Tampereen Teknillinen Korkeakoulu, which in 1973 moved from the centre to the newly-founded and rapidly growing satellite city of Hervanta. Nowadays Tampere is a true students city, providing quality education at the highest level. In part, this fact accounts for the steady increase in population; every autumn a flood of students enters the city, many of them to stay. The educational and cultural spheres have developed hand in hand. At present, city life is thoroughly influenced and enriched by high quality cultural institutions and events such as the Tampereen Elokuvajuhlat and the famous Tampereen Teatterikesä. Tourists are also attracted by the Särkänniemen Elämyspuisto and the Näsinneula, both opened in the 1970s.

Progress in transport methods has had significant domestic and international effects on Tampere. In the latter half of the 19th century, steamboats sailed the lakes of Tampere, but their importance especially in the south sank when the railroad was completed in 1876. Today the lakeboats are mainly used by tourists. In 1979, the International Airport in Pirkkala was opened, and the latest big step in transport was celebrated in October 2000 at the opening ceremony of the new motorway between Helsinki and Tampere. In architecture, functionalism gained ground in Tampere in the 1930s, producing for example the simple forms and flat roofs of the Tampereen Rautatieasema and the coach station. Among the most important fairly recent architectural names are Reima and Raili Pietilä, whose creative work is exemplified by the Kalevan Kirkko, the main library Metso, and several central buildings in Hervanta. In conclusion, Tampere has always wanted to be in the vanguard of progress. In the early stages of the city's history, this tendency showed in the industrial pioneer spirit, and a more recent little expression of the same phenomenon came on 1 June 1991, when the world's first GSM phonecall was made from the yard of the local phone company. Tampere protects her past as a city of factories carefully, but she looks into the future in different, much more colourful clothes.