Every design for Ylöjärvi

In Ylöjärvi stands Tree Mountain, a piece of land art by Agnes Denes, dedicated by the President of Finland and protected by law for centuries to come. It is an unusual landmark for a town that has always been more rural than urban. Ylöjärvi lies on the shore of Näsijärvi north-west of Tampere, its centre split by the highway and the railway into the Church Village and Soppeenmäki, with no single heart of its own.

Home here tends to mean a village or a neighbourhood rather than a town square. Families have moved in from the Tampere area in recent years, especially to Metsäkylä and Asuntila, and the population is young, while Kuru and Viljakkala, which joined later, stretch the town far north into lakes and forest. The old parish dishes say something about the place too: a very sweet limppu loaf and sauna-smoked ham. Ylöjärvi is also, a little unexpectedly, home to the Finnish Museum of Refrigeration.

Ylöjärven museo keeps the parish's story, from the first church burnt down by lightning to the town it became. A map of Ylöjärvi holds the same mix of lakeshore, ridge and new streets, and that is reason enough to wear it.