Vapriikki Museums, Tampere

1 more image

It was a rainy day today and so I decided to go to Vapriikki to see "Jade Princess": exhibition of Chinese Han-dynasty artifacts. The exhibition comes to Tampere from the Museum of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang. I also saw the exhibition "Pieces of China- Mao, Change and China Today": photographs by Michael Wolf and artifacts of modern China. Very interesting items and especially the pictures of modern chinese housing were touching, to say the least.

There are also several permanent exhibitions to see, a restaurant and a museum shop.

The building itself is a tourist attraction because it's a good example of an old factory - Tampella engineering works in this case - renovated for new use.

Opening hours
Tue, Thu-Sun 10-18, Wed 11-20, Mon closed. In June, July and August open also Mon 10-18.
Exceptional opening hours: Friday 15 June 10-17. Closed 22.-24.6., 6.12. and 23.-26.12.2007

2 more images

These are much developed areas that are built inside old factories of Finlayson and Tampella on both sides of the rapids.
Especially Finlayson area is easy to reach from main square, its located at the other(north) end of the square. In the area is a movie center, and several restaurants and coffee shops.

The Tampella area on east side of the rapids is also easy to reach by foot. Just walk over the bridge at Satakunnankatu, and rest your eyes at UNESCO?s heritage scene. The Tampella area has great museums of Vapriikki, that have among others history of Finland, Tampere, and ice hockey and motorbikes...

Among the several exhibitions inside the Vapriikki Museum Centre is the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame Museum. Having grown up in the 1980's, it was special for me to see how important players such as Jari Kurri, Risto Siltanen, Esa Tikkanen and Reijo Ruotsalainen, who back when I was a kid were nothing more than players with funny names to me, are in the history of Finnish hockey. (Of course, nowadays, my hometown Montreal Canadiens are captained by Finland's own Saku Koivu.) There is also a game corner where kids of all ages can test their shooting accuracy.

While the Hall of Fame is probably of little interest to people who are neither from Finland nor huge hockey fans, it is only one of the exhibitions you can visit with your entry ticket to the Vapriikki Museum Centre.

It´s a museum of shoes-what else to tell.I suggest you will go and see it.See also other museums in Vapriikki.