The Moomins and Tove Jansson on Finland’s East Coast
Kotka, and the entire East Coast, is more Moomin-like than you might think. The Finnish Maritime Museum’s Moomin adventure exhibition Courage, Love, Freedom! at the Maritime Center Vellamo takes you on an exciting journey with the Moomin characters. In Kotka and Hamina, you can admire murals painted by Tove Jansson during her most prolific creative period. The latest pilgrimage destination for Tove fans is Rankin Island off the coast of Kotka. It was there that the movie The Summer Book, starring Hollywood star Glenn Close, was filmed in the summer of 2024. The movie is based on Tove Jansson’s beloved novel.
Moomin Adventure in Maritime Center Vellamo
Moomin Adventure Courage, Love, Freedom! is a magical adventure into the values and philosophy of the Moomins. The illustrations and quotes in the exhibition are based on Tove Jansson’s original Moomin books.
Aimed at all ages, the exhibition takes you through a gloomy forest to the peaceful Moominvalley. You will dive into the Magician’s hat, climb through the jungle, and wake up in the silence of the Magic Winter. The exhibition celebrates 80 years of Moomins.
Courage, love, freedom! Moomin adventure at the Maritime Center Vellamo in Kotka, February 14, 2025–March 7, 2027.
Tove Jansson's murals in Kotka and Hamina
During her most prolific creative period in the 1940s and 1950s, Tove Jansson painted two magnificent murals in Kotka, which you can explore with the help of a Kotka guide. Tove painted the Satupanoraama mural, which adorns the wall of the former port company’s daycare center, in 1949. You can admire another mural painted by Tove in 1952 on the wall of the cafeteria at the Ekami campus of the Kotka-Hamina Regional Education Consortium.
There are also two paintings by Tove Jansson in Hamina. Tove painted the works Untitled and Story from the Bottom of the Sea in honor of Hamina’s 300th anniversary in 1952. The works were originally displayed in the Marskin Sali cabinet at Seurahuone, but today they adorn the walls of the Town Hall in Hamina.
Summer Book the Movie Starring Glenn Close and Island Rankki
The Kotka archipelago plays a major role in the film Summer Book, starring Hollywood star Glenn Close. Based on Tove Jansson’s beloved novel, the film is set in Island Rankki, located off the coast of Kotka. Its rugged and sensitive nature, the crashing sea, and the people who blend into the archipelago landscape will charm anyone.
