Mannerheim statue targeted again in Tampere, memorial plaque removed

The Mannerheim statue in Tampere’s Leinola district has again been vandalised, according to the Tampere Art Museum.

This time, an attempt was made to steal the memorial plaque attached to the statue’s pedestal. The plaque has been taken into the museum’s custody and will be reattached to the sculpture later.

The statue has repeatedly been targeted over the decades. Most recently, in late April, Iltalehti reported it had been defaced with paint and political slogans. Similar incidents occurred in 2013 and twice in the early 2000s.

The statue, sculpted by Evert Porila, was erected in 1956 on a rock in Leinola from which Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim is known to have observed the 1918 Battle of Tampere. Completed in 1939, its installation was delayed first by wartime and later by Mannerheim’s own request that it not be unveiled before his death.

After Mannerheim’s death, Tampere City Council decided the statue—depicting him in his Finnish Civil War military uniform—would not be placed in the city centre, leading to its current location on Mannerheiminkallio in Leinola.