Vapriikki is a versatile museum centre located by the Tammerkoski river, offering something to see and experience for the whole family. You can explore over ten exhibitions all at once. History, natural sciences, and technology – that’s what makes a great museum center! Our visitors are also served by a museum restaurant and a museum shop.
Everyone is welcome here. We promise that everyone will find something meaningful in Vapriikki.
At Vapriikki, we believe in inspiring with knowledge. We make content that is inspired by nature and human activity both attractive and accessible.
Learning, insights and experiences go hand in hand in Vapriikki. We offer multi-sensory experiences, engaging content, opportunities for immersion, and great service.
We are constantly evolving.
Vapriikki is a pioneer among European museum centres, wowing a wide range of audiences with diverse content inspired by human activities and nature, as well as engaging services.
Vapriikki boldly presents topical themes, while trusting its own expertise and values.
Vapriikki is a pioneer in the museum sector with activities based on transparency, expertise, cooperation and sustainability.
Together with other operators, Vapriikki forms a complex of culture, science and services of an international standing in Tampere.
Vapriikki is housed in the old Tampella factory hall, whose oldest parts date back to the 1880s. The largest exhibition hall, a hundred metres long and 16 metres high, was built in the 1910s–1920s.
The industrial history of the Tampella area began in the 1840s with a small blast furnace. In 1856, Gustaf August Wasastjerna, the owner of the Seinäjoki iron works, founded a machine shop by the rapids, while Adolf Törngren, Master of Laws, founded a linen mill. Five years later the two merged to form the Tampere Linen and Iron Industry Limited Company (since named Tampella), which had a wide range of production including locomotives, turbines and damask cloths of linen.
Vapriikki opened to the public in 1996, and the building was fully ready as a museum in 2000. The total floor area of the museum centre is approximately 14,000 m2, half of which is devoted to exhibition facilities and premises open to the public.
The textile production ended in the 1970s, and industrial use of the last buildings by the rapids ceased in the 1990s. The Swedish word ‘fabrik’ became the Finnish ‘vapriikki’ in the last century, and the museum centre was named Vapriikki to emphasise the significance of its location in Finnish industrial history.
Explore the history of the Museum Centre in the video.
