We arrived to visit Seurasaari, which is located in our capital, Helsinki, on August 11, 2021.
Seurasaari is a museum island on the western edge of Helsinki. An open-air museum has been operating on the island since 1909, where old wooden buildings from all over Finland have been moved to.
In addition to outdoor areas, the island also has a summer restaurant and two beaches, one of which is Nudist Beach.
Under the leadership of Building Conservator Erkka Pajula, we got to see the magnificent buildings and hear about the history of the buildings and the restoration methods and styles.
Seurasaari is a protected site owned by the City of Helsinki. The Finnish Heritage Agency is responsible for the operations of the open-air museum. Seurasaari’s annual budget is about 700,000 euros.
For myself, the Niemelä croft was quite an interesting destination, which opened our eyes to our history. I had never thought before why sometimes the doorways have been really small and windows in few, in small sizes. In winter, the heat remained better inside because of these.
Also one memorable fact was that there were smaller buildings in the yard where the oldest young adults in the family settled. Smaller courtyard buildings might even be included when they got married and moved under the same roof with their spouse.
The Niemelä croft is also the first building to be moved to Seurasaari from Konginkangas in 1909.
The museum’s collections include thirty buildings and about 90 separate buildings. The buildings date from the 17th to the 18th century. The oldest building on Seurasaari is the wooden Karuna Church from 1686. The Karuna Church has been moved to the area from Southwest Finland.
The Seurasaari museum area is generally open from first of May until early autumn. During this period, a lot of tours organized by the guides are in addition to Finnish language, in Swedish, English and German.
Text: Toni Kaijala
Translation: Mitra Koskela
Sources:
Guided tour by Erkka Pajula
Wikipedia
Museovirasto.fi