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Offered languages
- Swedish
- English
Join us on a self-guided audio walk through the centre of Helsinki and explore the places that were important in Tove Jansson's life and career. A journey from 1914 to 2001, together with Tove and her friends and lovers, family members and Moomins.
This authorised audio tour is created in cooperation with Moomin Characters Oy Ltd. The narrator is actor Alma Pöysti, who played Tove Jansson in the film about her life and whose grandparents were close friends of Tove.
This tour is self-guided via a GPS-based app that you download to your phone. When you purchase the tour, you will receive an email with information on how to download the app that will show you the way. You'll listen to the story as you walk, and each time you reach a new location, you'll be treated to unique images from Tove's own photo archive.
You'll also visit the Moomin Shop and get access to a special discount code to use in the shop!
You can start, pause and end the tour at any time.
What's Included
Meeting and pickup
Since this is a self-guided walking tour, there will be no guide to meet you. Instead, you go to the starting point, open the StoryTourist app on your phone, sign in and start the tour. The starting point of this tour is located by the entrace of the Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki, Finland.
This tour ends by the Castaway statue on Tähtitorninvuori, Helsinki.
Itinerary
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1Uspenski Cathedral
This selfguided audio tour starts outside The Uspenski Cathedral where Tove Jansson used to play as a child. Learn about her artistic family and her early childhood on the Katajanokka peninsula.
5 minutes • Admission ticket not included -
2Kauppatori
Watch photographs and film clips from Kauppatori Square during the Finnish civil war, and hear more about how Tove Jansson's father, the artist Victor Jansson, was changed by fighting in the war.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
3Esplanadi Park
See the mermaid statue that Victor Jansson made of his daughter Tove and learn about her teenage rebellions as a budding artist, creating her first Moomin like creatures.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
4Senate Square
See pictures from the bombings of Senate Square and learn about Finland during WW2, a period when Tove became an increasingly political young adult and wrote her first Moomin story.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
5
See preserved traces of the WW2 bombings of Helsinki outside the workplace of Tove's mother, illustrator Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, and learn more about how the politics of war tested the ties of Tove's family.
5 minutes • Admission ticket not included -
6
Visit the building where Tove held her first separate art exhibition and learn about her inner struggles of finding her identity as a painter or an author. Learn about her love story with philosopher and politician Atos Wirtanen and the publications of the first Moomin books as WW2 finally came to an end.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
7
Stop by Hotel Kämp where Tove Jansson met with Charles Sutton from the Associated Newspapers syndicate and made the deal that would take her Moomin comics to global success in 120 newspapers in 40 countries.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
8
Visit the flagship Moomin Shop and learn about the first Moomin products launched in the 1950's at the Stockmann department store just across the street. Why not pause the tour to use the discount code for Moomin Shop exclusively provided in the app!
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
9
Visit the site where the Moomin play Trolls in the Wings had it's premiere and learn about Tove Jansson's secret love affair with theatre director Vivica Bandler, their lifelong friendship and how Tove immortalised their relationship in the Moomin books using metaphors and coded language.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
10
See the building with the tower where Tove Jansson's private studio home is located. Learn about Tove's love for her longtime life partner, fellow artist Tuulikki Pietilä, and how she and other important people in Tove's life influenced the Moomin world and inspired it's characters.
5 minutes • Admission ticket not included -
11
See the Helsinki Observatory which inspired the book Comet in Moominland, hear about how Tove Jansson used disasters and extreme weather as metaphors for rebirth and creation of new identities and see how she continued to reinvent herself as an artist throughout her life.
5 minutes • Admission ticket not included -
12
End the tour at the lookout spot by The Castaways statue on Tähtitorninvuori, where you are surrounded by many of the important places in Tove's life and can get a glimpse of her beloved archipelago, where she and Tuulikki spent their summers on a deserted island.
10 minutes • Admission ticket free
Additional info
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- Not recommended for travellers with mobility issues, due to stairs and uphill walking
Tags
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Show more
Cancellation Policy
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
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