Mumin Museum (Swedish: Muminmuseet, Finnish: Muumimuseo, formerly known as Moominvalley) is located in Tampere, Finland. The Mumin Museum features illustrations by Tove Jansson (creator of Mumin), 40 miniatures, a table on Mumin events and a small (2.5 meters high) house of Mumin. There are about 2000 exhibits in the museum. Also shown is the original multimedia Muminweiler. The Moomin shop sells gift items, and the Moomin library offers Moomin books in many languages.
Moomin's blue five-storey miniature house was built by Tuulikki Pietil, Pentti Aistol and Tove Janson in the late 1970s. The original idea was to make it round, as Janson always depicted it in his illustrations for Mumin's stories, but since it was to be shown in a corner at the Bratislava Biennale of illustrations in 1979, they decided to make it square. No drawings were made, the house was built freely, floor by floor. It did not follow any particular architectural style, but it was influenced by different styles. The ground floor was sketched by Tuulikki Pietil's brother, the architect of Reima Pietil. Initially a world tour of the house was planned after the 1979 Biennale, but eventually it went on tour only in the Nordic countries in 1980-83. He was then taken to Jansson's workshop, as he was in need of repair after the tour. In 1986, he was exhibited again at the Tampere Art Museum and then got his permanent location at the new Muminsky Museum, where he has been exhibiting since 1987. The photographs of the House of Muminov serve as illustrations for "The Unwanted Guest", the last of Janson's four illustrated books about Muminwell.
Until the end of 2012, the Momin Museum was located in the basement of the Metso City Library building. In December 2012, the museum moved to the basement of the Tampere Art Museum. During the move, a small collection of Tove Jansson's "Momin" illustrations was exhibited at the Vapriikki Museum Centre. The fully restored Mumin Valley was opened on January 2, 2013. The statue of Mumin in front of the Metso building remained in place. In 2016, the museum moved to Tampere Hall and was renamed the Mumin Museum. The statue of Mumin was also moved to a new place. The museum was opened in June 2017.
