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kmp78 · 7 years ago

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Finland chronicles: Adventures in Tampere

Ok so this is gonna be a REALLY long post, apologies in advance! Feel free to skip it if you´re not interested!

So... Some background info on Tampere... Well, Tampere is Finland´s 3rd largest city and very much blue-collar through and through.

It has been living off of factories of all kinds for generations.

Yes that´s my miniature mom lurking on the bridge.

Foliage situation was quite nice up there.

Prettttttttyyyy.

The tower thing is Tampere´s biggest landmark: Näsinneula. It´s basically a revolving observation deck.

The statue, depicting a helpless mother with her children, stands in memory of steamboat Kuru and the 138 people who died when it sank in a Lake near Tampere in 1929.

Also gotta say, the trees up in Tampere are weeeeeird...

Also they had these fun little statues scattered all over the park! I swear, me and my camera were darting around like loons each time I discovered a new one...

What can I say, I like simple things!

The manor where the Valentino exhibit was being shown is called Milavida.

Pretty, isn´t it?!

Actually it was even prettier on the inside! So classy and fancy but in a minimalist way. I was quite moved actually, I don´t even know why.

That chandelier and fireplace...

Gorgeous. I couldn´t stop snapping!

In stark contrast to the beauty of the manor, the story of the Milavida and the family who built it is quite tragic.

The story begins in 1836, when a young German-born Wilhelm von Nottbeck arrived in Tampere from St. Petersburgh to take charge of the struggling Finlayson cotton factory his father Carl, an industry tycoon, had recently purchased.

Over the next years and decades, Wilhelm worked tirelessly and managed to turn Finlayson into a huge success with thousands of employees - it´s still in operation and is one of the biggest players in its field even today. He also found time to get himself an aristocratic and uppity wife, Countess Constance.

The family lived in the lap of luxury and were heralded as royalty in very modest and working class Tampere (czar Alexander II was among their nearest and dearest), and Constance for example was very high and mighty and particular about etiquette. She refrained from socializing with the riff raff, and among other things, women servants were not allowed to serve her - only males. She even said that “I hope I don´t ever have to live in a world where I am being served by a woman”. Oooh that Connie was a charmer for sure...

The couple were all sorts of cutting edge with their lifestyles and decors. Opulence was key - notice the bear rug on the floor, pictures of their good buddies czar Alexander II and his wife on the wall, fine china on the tables...

... and original 1st generation Louis Vuitton travel kits! These bitches sure were living it up!

Anyway, Wilhelm and Constance had 7 sons: Carl, Wilhelm, Edvard, Peter, Alexander, Ernst and one who died as a baby.

Youngest surviving son Ernst died in his late teens as a victim of a murder - MAYBE! He was found stabbed in a seedy part of town, and managed to pinpoint some local gutter dwellers as the assailants before dying of his injuries - but others say he actually stabbed himself as a result of having a huge row with his father over him refusing to return to boarding school. Whatever the truth may be, it died with young Ernst.

None of the other sons were particularly keen on staying in Finland and one by one they all migrated all over Europe, but they did return for visits and thanks to them being introduced to such modern wonders as gas lighting on their travels around Europe, they brought it back to Tampere with them and therefore Tampere became the first city in Finland to get lit!

Fourth son Peter stayed in Tampere, however, and followed his father into the Finlayson factory business. In the early 1890s he found a wife, Olga, and they had two daughters, Iris and Andrée.

In 1893 Peter bought some land (in the best area of Tampere of course) and commissioned a manor to be built for his growing family.

This is where the Milavida manor comes into play!

In the picture below, we see Peter and Olga standing over the blueprints of the manor.

By 1898, the manor was almost ready to be moved into - and what perfect timing because by now Olga was heavily pregnant with twins!

Late in her pregnancy she decided to travel to Baden-Baden for a visit with her family.

And this is where things start to go bad, bad and worse...

While in Baden-Baden, Olga went into labor and after a very difficult delivery, gave birth to two healthy babies: Alfred and Olga.

Sadly the difficulties mother Olga suffered with during childbirth were too severe for her to overcome, and she died only moments after delivering her babies.

Heartbroken and newly widowed Peter returned home to Tampere with his now 4 motherless children, and moved into the just-finished Milavida manor.

He tried to get his and the children´s lives back on track, which was not easy due to his business struggling, and of course him being left without a wife.

In 1899 he traveled to Paris to visit some family members and while there his appendix burst and even tho with today´s medical advances that would not be a fatal illness, back in 1899 it still was - and it proved to be just that for Peter, who died during surgery.

And just like that, within only 7 months, the four von Nottbeck children (now aged 4, 2 and 7 months) had lost both their parents.

The children were appointed two guardians from within the extended von Nottbeck family (uncles Edvard and Alexander) but since neither of the them were really interested in actually raising the kids, they remained living alone in the Milavida manor with only their nannies and servants to look after them. And as a cruel cherry on top of the rotten cake these kids were handed, uncle Alex ALSO died of a burst appendix only one year after their father (he refused to have surgery because the surgery had killed his brother...), leaving them with just one guardian.

In 1902, uncle Edvard finally said “Fuck this shit, I´m outta here” and decided to relocate to Switzerland for good and took the four orphans with him - which spelled the end for Milavida as a family home. The manor was sold to the city of Tampere, and has since served as a museum, then as a military base during the war after which it was left to rot for many years until a few years ago when it was again turned into a museum.

Phew! What a story, right?!

Anyway... So the actual reason why I traveled all the way to Tampere in the first place were the Valentinos dresses!

I have to admit that the exhibit was kinda small and blah, but the dresses were eye-pleasing nonetheless!

Just goes to show that a classic and classy design never goes out of style, as these dresses are already a few decades old and still look fresh as fuck!

This black chiffon dress was probs my fave. And love that PJ thing!

Hmmm... It´s almost like I have seen similar “masks” prancing around on stage this summer... Huh.

There was also a very stylish portrait of the man himself, surrounded by someone´s beloved “people”...

... and yes I checked and no there was no VK in that pic, so... Relaaaax!

In other Tampere highlights...

Ehe.

Well, let´s hope this isn´t false advertising.

Also...

YAS.

Fun fact: Tampere was the first place in Finland to set up a restaurant for hot wings - legend has it that Finnish hockey players who were drafted to the NHL introduced this delicacy to their hometown folks in Tampere (a massive hockey town btw), and the rest is history. According to some studies, Tampere folks actually eat as many wings per year as the rest of Finland combined!

I try to uphold Helsinki´s reputation in that field tho.

#Finland chronicles #tampere highlights #suomi finland

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