Tampere

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

The city has a population of 223,292 growing to 313,058 people in the urban area, and 364,000 in the metropolitan area (Tampere sub-region) on an area of 4,977 km2 as of 2011. Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in the country, after Helsinki and Espoo municipalities (2014 data). It's also the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area and inner Finland's major urban, economic and cultural hub.

Tampere is 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. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".

Helsinki is approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) south of Tampere, and can be reached in 1.5 hours by train and 2 hours by car. The distance to Turku is roughly the same. Tampere–Pirkkala Airport is Finland's third-busiest airport, with over 400,000 passengers annually.

Tampere has a borderline humid continental climate/subarctic climate (Köppen "Dfb" and "Dfc"). Winters are cold and the average temperature from November to March is below 0 °C (32 °F). Summers are mild. On average, the snow season lasts 4–5 months from late November to early April. Considering it being at the subarctic threshold and inland, winters are on average quite mild for the classification, as is the annual mean temperature.

Tampere is known for its active cultural life. Some of the most popular writers in Finland, such as Väinö Linna, Kalle Päätalo, and Hannu Salama, hail from Tampere. These are all known as writers depicting the lives of working-class people. Also from a working-class background was the famous poet Lauri Viita of the Pispala district (which is the original home of Hannu Salama too).

Tampere is home to the television channel Yle TV2, with its studios in the Ristimäki district, known among all for such popular TV comedies as Tankki täyteen, Reinikainen and Kummeli. Tampere Film Festival, an international short film festival, is held every March. Tammerfest is Tampere's urban rock festival held every July. Similarly, the Tampere Floral Festival is an annual event, held each Summer.

Source: Wikipedia

Finland Sights