In Mantta, nature and art go hand in hand
Getting to Mänttä is not easy. Not even locate it on the map because for a few years shares municipality with neighboring Vilppula to gain more geographical and political weight. Now, both cities are joined by separating their names by a hyphen, a straight line that is the same as They are connected by a road that makes its way through the woods.
The railway does not reach Mänttä, although it does reach its Siamese city. For this reason, the most convenient option is ** to take one of the buses chartered by the Serlachius museums ** that connect the city directly with Tampere in a peaceful journey of an hour and a half.
What if we told you that you are in the most cultured town in Finland?
If you take the one that leaves in the afternoon, at about 6:55 p.m., the consequence is to arrive in this small city when its 10,000 inhabitants are ready to sleep. And so it reveals itself more isolated, quieter and darker. Its gloomy buildings are reminiscent of deep America while its restaurants do not serve these ungodly hours.
The only one that you can find open is the Alexander hotel, an establishment that shares a reception with a fashion store and a hamburger restaurant. There, its owner Daniel explains that Mänttä remains largely rural, suffering from a great brain drain and that he is fighting this rout with a gourmet meat farm that he dreams of one day turning into an eco-resort.
For now, the result is some very appetizing hamburgers with which he seduces his guests, mostly business travelers who come to do business at the Metsa paper mill.
A DIFFUSED MUSEUM
And suddenly it is day and Mänttä comes out of the lethargy with joy. And where at night there was only silence and sinister shadows now there is cheerful trees, lacustrine horizons and leisurely routine.
Its inhabitants are still not too used to tourists coming. Nevertheless, the city is prepared and it is not very difficult to find the great monument of the city, its stone church, and a few meters away, the first headquarters of the Serlachius collection. Or, as it is known today, the Gustaf Serlachius museum.
Gustaf Serlachius Museum
The one known as the White House was, in the 1930s, the headquarters of the company G. A. Serlachius, one of the pioneers in the country's paper industry.
Nowadays, stands as a portentous building, proudly reflected in the lake and that manages to create the same effect of astonishment that it had among its employees and the merchants who came here. Not in vain, was inspired by the house of the Montecarlo Sports Club, a complex that Gösta Serlachius fell in love with on one of his flattering trips and that he wanted to replicate at all costs.
Inside, everything remains the same, but changed. The modern bar of its cafeteria and the elevators that connected the floors are still maintained. In the frieze that separates the floors of this beautiful rationalist art deco building the story of Gustaf, the pioneer of the family who left behind his pharmacy in Tampere to start exploiting the electricity generated by the Mänttä fjords, is freshly drawn.
And a key idea to understand this cultural satellite also slips: the industrialization of rural areas in the 19th century brought with it communication and pride, the germ of a nationalist feeling that many artists sponsored by this millionaire began to paint in his paintings.
And suddenly... art!
For its part, in the rooms, suddenly, art appears in the form of temporary exhibitions showcasing current Finnish artists and great global geniuses of modernity. A resulting combo that is complemented with an interactive tour on the history of the company and with an apothecary with which the origin of Gustaf Serlachius is remembered.
But this is only the beginning of everything, the first plate of an art foundation that has decided disperse their works and institutions throughout the extension of this municipality , making a kind of museum in the style of the Italian Albergo Diffuso: each experience in a different building.
BIKE FOR EVERYTHING
Aware of the distance between buildings, this cultural institution makes cheerful bicycles available to all its visitors with which to go from the first museum to the second, the Gösta. Furthermore, it does so by plotting a very attractive path that borders the forest and that appears in some sections to the calm Lake Melas.
But before taking this path, it is worth visiting other places near the Gustaf museum and key to the development of the city, such as the statue dedicated to him on the shores of Lake Koskenlanlampi or the old Pekilo factory, where in summer the works of art of the essential festival of the city are installed.
The bicycle as a way of life
A little further on awaits the Mänttä Klubin , a medium quality hotel but with the peculiarity of locate in the old casino and club of the city, the place where this paper tycoon entertained his friends and marked the distances.
THE GÖSTA FOREST
At the end of the stone bike path appears the jewel in the crown, the Gösta pavilion. Opened in 2014, this cultural complex It is the icing on the collector's dream of the second great manager of the paper company.
Gosta Serlachius not only promoted the company inherited from his uncle, but also satisfied, with money, his taste for art until end up owning a large number of works from all periods.
To show them off, the foundation that manages his cultural heritage called an international contest that he ended up winning. the consortium of Catalan architects MXSI. The secret of his success was integrating the forest and the lake, devising a photogenic volume and create a dialogue between the old family mansion, the lake and contemporary design.
Namely, a complex that appears between the trunks, brightens the meadow and agrees with the lake without giving up the wow effect with which he conquered Instagram from the first minute.
art on the lake
Inside, the old house is used to display the permanent collection with works by Finnish artists from the last 150 years. For their part, the new pavilions are conceived as spaces for most ambitious exhibitions, both for size and for the variety of artistic languages.
Outside, the old garden is populated with works of art while the little lake island , connected to the ground by a hypnotic bridge, reconnects the traveler with nature in a bath of silence and purity difficult to explain.
The wild in this brand new place is also savored. In the restaurant of the new pavilion, Chef Henry Tikkanen enjoy like a child offering art collection inspired menus , as well as in the different temporary exhibitions.
His passion for cooking also leads him to offer cooking classes where he manages to evangelize about the reviled Finnish products. His proposal is perfectly star-worthy without being pedantic and he manages to restore faith in museum kitchens to all those agnostics.
LONG LIVE THE LAKE RESORT!
That Mänttä is gradually becoming a destination to be reckoned with is demonstrated by other details such as the Rapukartano holiday resort. In it, what prevails are not the paintings of suomi romanticism or the torn creativity. Here what he commands is nature, the essence and the farm.
To understand its essence you have to travel several decades back, when the countryside and lakes of central Finland were the fetish destination in the warm months of urbanites from the south, Russian vacationers and travelers from the north who rented the farms to stay for long weeks.
The merit of Rapucartano is to maintain this spirit of connection with nature without giving up luxury, with a wide range of genuine saunas, some cabins and suites that are pure woodwork and an offer of activities in which the lake and the forest monopolize everything.
Do you remember that Finland is half forest, half lake? Well, here it is like that, although with an unexpected museum with which to rise to the cultural Olympus of the country.
Long live the lake resort