Ihanakatu in Armonkallio Voted Tampere's Best Street Name

Ihanakatu in Armonkallio was voted Tampere's best street name in a recent Tamperelainen poll of 268 participants, receiving 10.8 percent of the vote.

The runner-up was Tumppi in Hervanta with 9.3 percent, followed by Käpylehmänkatu in Linnainmaa on 6.7 percent.

Ihanakatu is a short, quiet residential street near the Rantatunneli and Ranta-Tampella. The name already appears in the Kyttälä town plan of 1875. Local lore links it to a cow called Ihana that reportedly walked its own path back from the pastures; that track may have become the street.

New resident Ellen Pekkala, 21, moved to Ihanakatu two months ago to begin administrative studies at the University of Tampere. She says the name has amused her friends and that she even googled it when she first heard it. "This has been a lovely and safe place to live," she adds.

Voters offered lighthearted reasons for their choice, from "all the lovely people must live there" to "honour to the Ihana cow who first trod the path." Others kept it simple: "Ihanakatu is simply so... lovely!"