Moominworld in Naantali opens its gates in the summer season, do you know the history behind the only Moomin-themed theme park in Finland?
Moominworld was supposed to be built in Turku, but the decision to build it in Naantali was made on the 5th of April 1993. In Midsummer 1993, the Moominworld opened in Naantali – less than three months after the construction decision.
“Nobody believed in the construction timetable or the targeted visitor count. People thought 100 000 visitors during the first summer was unreasonable”, Moominworld’s CEO Tomi Lohikoski says.
“Building the four storey Moominhouse with Moominmamma’s jam cellar took only two months, thanks to the city of Naantali making it possible, for example, by speeding up all the bureaucracy”, Lohikoski continues.
At the beginning of the 90s, the animated Moomin series started the big success of the Moomins. Also, Moominworld gained a lot of publicity, and without marketing, over 170 000 Moomin fans visited Moominworld during the first summer.
Tomi Lohikoski started his career in Moominworld as a seasonal employee in 1993. He remembers how Tove Jansson visited the Moominworld just one day before the opening. With tears in her eyes, she had said: “The product of my imagination is now real”.
