Walk through Tove Jansson’s story in Helsinki
With the new Tove Jansson’s Helsinki audio tour, you can now on foot explore the places that were important in Tove Jansson’s life and career. The narrator of the tour is actor Alma Pöysti, who takes the listener on a journey from 1914 to 2001, together with Tove and her friends and lovers, family members, and the Moomins.
Walk from Katajanokka to Observatory Hill
The Tove Jansson’s Helsinki walk starts in the Tove Jansson Park outside Uspenski Cathedral, where Tove played as a child and created her first fantasy worlds.
The audio walk takes the user to 12 spots that were important to Tove Jansson.
You’ll hear about her upbringing in the artistic Jansson Hammarsten family, before continuing toward the Market Square and the story of the war years that shaped her youth and early adult life.
Tove Jansson grew up in an artist family and started to draw before she could walk.
During the walk, you’ll pass twelve places that were meaningful to Tove, such as the gallery where Tove held her first solo exhibition, the building where her studio home was located and the old Lilla Teatern premises, where the Moomin play Troll in the Wings had its world premiere. You will get to know Tove’s various family members and friends and loved ones, be guided chronologically through important events in Tove’s life, and gain an insight into the history of Helsinki and Finland in the 20th century. At each location, you’ll see unique images from Tove’s personal archive.
One of the stops on the audio tour is outside the premises where Club de Sauna was located, the temporary nightclub Tove ran with her friend and former love Vivica Bandler during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Original drawing by Tove Jansson.
The actor Alma Pöysti is the guiding voice of the audio walk.
This authorized self-guided audio walk was created in collaboration with Moomin Characters Ltd. The narrator is actress Alma Pöysti, who portrayed Tove in the biopic Tove (Zaida Bergroth, 2020) and whose grandparents actors Lasse Pöysti and Birgitta Ulfsson were close friends of Tove’s. The walk is ca 3,5 km long and takes around 90 minutes. It is available in English, Swedish and Finnish.
Alma Pöysti during the recording of the guiding voice-over for the audio walk.
The StoryTourist app shows the way
To take the tour, simply download the user-friendly StoryTourist app. It features a map, GPS, and a digital guide to keep you on the right track. Once you’ve purchased the tour, it’s yours to keep—you can use it whenever and as often as you like.
Through the StoryTourist-app, you’ll hear the story of Tove Jansson’s life and art. The only thing you need to be able to explore Helsinki in this brand-new way is a smartphone with headphones and a fully charged battery.
Download the app and buy the audio tour before you head out, you will need wi-fi for the download. As the audio tour is location-based, you can start it only when you are at the starting point at Tove Jansson Park in Katajanokka, Helsinki.
You can download the StoryTourist app and buy the Tove Jansson Helsinki audio tour here! You can also find detailed instructions on how the app and the audio tour work there.
