Tampere

Tampere is a city in Pirkanmaa in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries; it has a population of 238,140 with the urban area holding 334,112 people and the metropolitan area, also known as the Tampere sub-region, holding 385,301 inhabitants in an area of 4,970 km². Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in Finland, after the cities of Helsinki and Espoo and the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area, within which both Helsinki and Espoo are located. Today, Tampere is one of the major urban, economic, and cultural hubs in the whole inland region.
Tampere and its environs belong to the historical province of Satakunta. The area belonged to the Tavastia Province from 1831 to 1997, and over time it has often been considered to belong to Tavastia as a province. For example, in Uusi tietosanakirja published in the 1960s, the Tampere region is presented as part of the then Tavastia Province. Around the 1950s, Tampere and its surroundings began to establish itself as their own province of Pirkanmaa.