Tove Jansson's Helsinki Self Guided Tour

Tove Jansson's Helsinki Self Guided Tour

By StoryTourist

Free cancellation available

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Features

Free cancellation available
1h 30m
Mobile voucher
Instant confirmation
Multiple languages

Overview

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 storey 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.

Activity location

Uspenskin Cathedral (Uspenskin Katedraali)
- Kanavakatu 1
- 00160, Helsinki, Finland

Meeting/Redemption Point

Pormestarinrinne 1
- 1 Pormestarinrinne
- 00160, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

Check availability

Tove Jansson's Helsinki Self Guided Tour in Multilingual

1h 30m
Opening hours: Sat 00:00-23:30
English

Travellers

Languages available

Price details

€9.31 x 1 Adult€9.31

Total

What's included, what's not

This tour belongs to you after purchase, you can redo it again at any time
The StoryTourist app
No transport included, this is a walking tour
Smartphone and headphones
No live guide - this is a self-guided tour
Entrance to any museums or exhibits along the way

Know before you book

Service animals allowed
Public transport options are available nearby
Travellers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Not recommended for travellers with mobility issues, due to stairs and uphill walking
In accordance with EU regulations about consumer rights, activities services are not subject to the right of withdrawal. Supplier cancellation policy will apply.

Activity itinerary

Uspenskin Cathedral (Uspenskin Katedraali)

5m
Admission ticket not included

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.

Kauppatori

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.

The Esplanadi 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.

Senate 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 storey.

The Bank of Finland

5m
Admission ticket not included

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.

Unioninkatu

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 storey with philosopher and politician Atos Wirtanen and the publications of the first Moomin books as WW2 finally came to an end.

Hotel Kämp

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.

Moomin Shop Esplanadi

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!

Kasarmikatu

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.

Tove Jansson's home and studio memorial plaque

5m
Admission ticket not included

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.

Helsinki Observatory

5m
Admission ticket not included

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.

Observatorieberget

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.

Location

Activity location

Uspenskin Cathedral (Uspenskin Katedraali)
- Kanavakatu 1
- 00160, Helsinki, Finland

Meeting/Redemption Point

Pormestarinrinne 1
- 1 Pormestarinrinne
- 00160, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

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