Moominvalley (museum)

Moominvalley (Swedish: Mumindalen, Finnish: Muumilaakso) is situated in the city of Tampere, Finland. Shown at the Moomin Valley Museum are illustrations made by Tove Jansson (the creator of Moomins), 40 miniatures, tableaux about Moomin events and a small (2.5 metres high) Moomin House. There is a total of about 2,000 exhibits on display. Also shown is the original Moomin Valley multimedia. It also has the Moomin Valley shop which sells gift items and Moomin books in many languages.

The blue five-storey miniature Moomin House was built by Tuulikki Pietilä, Pentti Eistola and Tove Jansson in the late 1970s. The original idea was to make it round, like Jansson always made it in her illustrations for the Moomin stories, but since it was going to be displayed in a corner at the Bratislava biennale of illustrations in 1979, they decided to make it square instead. No blueprints were made, the house was built freely, floor by floor, and it does not follow any particular architectural style but is influenced by many different styles. The ground floor was sketched by Tuulikki Pietilä's brother, architect Reima Pietilä. Originally, a world tour was planned for the house after the 1979 biennale, but eventually it went on tour only in the Nordic countries in 1980–1983. Then it was taken to the atelier of Tove Jansson, since it needed some repairs after the tour. It was displayed again at the Art Museum of Tampere in 1986 and then got its permanent location at the new Moomin Museum, where it has been on display since 1987. Photos of the Moomin House serve as illustrations in An Unwanted Guest, the last of Jansson's four picture books about the Moomins.

Up until the end of 2012, the Moomin Museum situated in the basement of the Metso building of the city library. However, during December 2012, the museum moved in to the Tampere Art Museum basement. During the move, a small collection of Tove Jansson's Moomin illustrations were on display in the Museum Center Vapriikki. The fully renewed and renovated Moomin Valley opened for visitors on January 2, 2013. The Moomin statue outside the Metso building will remain in place, to remind visitors of the Moomins' old home.

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Wikipedia