Tove Jansson's Helsinki Self Guided Tour

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.