We go to a whole island of museums

Tammi-Wilsons in Western Finnish national costumes

 

Several weeks ago, when PW:s sister was here with her family, we did a trip to Seurasaari. This museum island was founded 1909, using Skansen in Stockholm as an example. Old buildings from all over Finland were bought and brought over to the island through the decades. The buildings were rebuilt to show people in Helsinki and visitors how Finns in other parts of the country used to live and still did. 

Seurasaari still works as it was meant to - it shows the history of living in Finland in interesting ways. It is still growing, and in fact the map shows that a new building will be soon opened on the island, to display the summer cabin culture of Finland in the 20th and 21st century.  

 Many of the buildings are open for visitors, so you can go in. We were especially impressed by how incredibly dark the older buildings were, especially from Eastern and Central Finland. We could not live like that! But when it was cold, you want to close off all windows, and when the weather was fine, people tended to stay outside a lot. Even for cooking there was often a special summer kitchen. 

You can visit Seurasaari and just walk around and admire the island and the buildings, but if you want the whole museum experience, you will need to pay the museum fee. Then you can go inside the rich and poor houses, the church and even a few barns. 

A wealthy home 

Educational pictures. This one tells of the dangers of a drinking father. 

 

 

 

Inside the beautiful church. They had two or three weddings while we explored nearby!

 

A home from the interior of the country

 

A barn from Northern Finland. They used to be built so bears and wolverines couldn't get in. 

 

Near Seurasaari, on a smaller island, there is an Iron Age village. These buildings are not originals, they were built specifically to showcase what sort of techniques were in use during the Finnish Iron Age (between 500 BC and 1300 AD, when the last parts of Finland were Christianized.)