Hämeensilta (the ″Häme Bridge″) is a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, crossing the

Tammerkoski Tammerkoski is a channel of rapids in Tampere, Finland. The city of Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. The difference in altitude between these two is and the water flows from Näsijärvi to Pyhäjärvi through ...

rapids. The main street of Tampere,

Hämeenkatu Hämeenkatu is the main street of Tampere, Finland, located in the city center. The boulevard is roughly a kilometre long, and wide (driveway and sidewalk) at its widest point. Hämeenkatu is a boulevard, which begins from the east at the Tampe ...

, runs along the bridge, connecting the

Kyttälä Kyttälä is a district in Tampere, Finland. It was born in the late 1870s as a working-class neighborhood to the eastern outskirts of the town. As Tampere soon expanded, Kyttälä is now a part of the city center between the Tammerkoski river an ...

district to the western parts of the city center. Hämeensilta is one of the city's best known landmarks, especially famous for the statues on the rails of the bridge. The arches of the bridge are made of concrete and they are coated with a red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

. The Hämeensilta was completed in 1929. It is named after the Finnish name of the Tavastia province.

History

The first known bridge crossing the Tammerkoski was built in the 16th century as the area was a part of the

Messukylä Messukylä ( sv, Messukylä, also ) is a former municipality of Finland which was annexed by the city of Tampere in 1947. The medieval stone church (built c. 1540) in Messukylä is the oldest building in Tampere. During the Civil War (1918), Mess ...

socken Socken is the name used for a part of a county in Sweden. In Denmark similar areas are known as ''sogn'', in Norway ''sokn'' or ''sogn'' and in Finland ''pitäjä'' ''(socken)''. A socken is a country-side area that was formed around a church, ...

. As the town of Tampere was established in 1779, the wooden bridge was finally replaced with a steel structured in 1884. During the early 1900s, Tampere was rapidly growing and the present Hämeensilta was built in 1928–1929. The 1900 completed

Satakunnansilta Satakunnansilta (the ″Satakunta Bridge″) is an old bridge in Tampere, Finland, that crosses the Tammerkoski rapids north of Hämeensilta. The bridge is part of the Satakunnankatu street and is used by both vehicle traffic and pedestrians. T ...

is the other large bridge crossing Tammerkoski in the Tampere city center.

Sculptures

The tall bronze statues were donated by the local businessman Rafael Haarla and made by the prominent Finnish sculptor

Wäinö Aaltonen Wäinö Valdemar Aaltonen (8 March 1894 – 30 May 1966) was a Finnish artist and sculptor. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "one of the leading Finnish sculptors". He was born to a tailor in the village of Karinainen, Finla ...

. One is a female figure of the ''

Finnish Maiden The Maiden of Finland ( fi, Suomi-neito, sv, Finlands mö) is the national personification of Finland. Personification She is a barefoot young woman in her mid-twenties with blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue and white national costume ...

'', while the other three, the ''Tax Collector'', the ''Merchant'' and the ''Hunter'', are describing Medieval

birkarls The Birkarls (''birkarlar'' in Swedish, unhistorical ''pirkkamiehet'' or ''pirkkalaiset'' in Finnish; ''bircharlaboa'', ''bergcharl'' etc. in historical sources) were a small, unofficially organized group that controlled taxation and commerce in ...

. The ''Maiden of Finland'' is featured on a postage stamp and in 1939 it was on display at the

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

{{Tampere Cityscape Bridges completed in 1929 Bridges in Finland Buildings and structures in Tampere Deck arch bridges Transport in Tampere

History

Sculptures

See also

References