In the local history museum in the centre of Kuusamo, you can get acquainted with the life in Kuusamo in the 1930s.

Local history museum is open at 10-18 from 11.6 to 3.8.2024 during weekdays and Saturdays.

In August the museum is open at 9-15 from 5.8 to 16.8.2024 during weekdays.

Kuusamo local history museum accepts museum card. Entrance fee is 6,30 euros for people over 15 years old.

Address: Kitronintie 6, Kuusamo

Events at Kuusamo local hsitory museum during summer 2024:

29.6 klo 18

Evakkotalo opening. Organized by Kuusamoseura. No entrance fee.

30.6 klo 11-15

Kuusamon kotiseutupäivät, järj, Kuusamoseura Vapaa pääay

3.7 klo 13

Teatteri Tie: Telin tutkimusmatka tulevaisuuksiin Museum entrance fee.

11.7 klo 18

Jukka Lamminen: Eino Leinon runoihin sävellettyjä lauluja Tickets 10e/5e

21.7 klo 12

Kuusamo Local history museum 50 years. No entrance fee, coffee service

24.7 klo 12

Sekasointuja: Musical monologue performance. Tickets 10e/5e

30.7 klo 18

Singalong accompanied by accordion. No entrance fee.

History of the Museum

The idea for the local museum came from Kuusamo-Seura ry, a local history collecting association, in the 1950s. They began collecting aged artefacts to the temporal location rented from Kuusamo’s parish, which was situated in the local church’s basement. In the year 1955 the parish leased them out a plot of land in the Kitroninpuisto Park, where the association began moving old buildings from different locations in Kuusamo. No final leasing agreement was made, and the agreement was a spoken one with the vicar of the parish, Antti Poukkula. In 1971 an official lease contract was made. From 1979 the local museum has belonged to the municipality of Kuusamo.

Ground in Kitroninpuisto Park is wet and constantly sinking, so in the spring of 1960 Kuusamo-Seura received hundreds of truckfulls of filler land from TVL, which was building the Toplanniementie road. Despite this, the buildings continue to slowly sink into the wet land.

The museum was opened on the 21st of July in 1974. Different kinds of events, such as family gatherings, are held in the area. From 1968 onwards Kuusamo-Seura has hosted the Kuusamopäivät event during the first weekend after Juhannus (Midsummer). In the summer of 1978 a movie called Juha was filmed on the museum’s grounds.

The Yard

The goal was to re-create an authentic, fully functional farmyard. Cartographer Ove Planting designed a traditional rectangular yard, in which the four sides are composed of the main building, a side building, a barn house and a stable. Other buildings are situated outside of the main yard, which is also called kartano (‘mansion’). First buildings moved to the museum grounds were the granary in 1957, House Rävä in 1960, the smoke sauna, small storehouse and windmill in 1969, the barn house in the early winter of 1963, House Pulkkanen between the years 1971-1972, and the watermill in 1976. The seine shelter was built in the summer of 1978 for the filming of the movie Juha. Other buildings and structures have been added later, most recently the small temporary housing building, evakkotalo, between the years 2014 and 2015. Currently there are sixteen different building in the museum grounds with various other structures.

The Roofs

The museum’s buildings either have birch bark, plank, shingle or felt roofs. Birch bark roofs were fairly common in the early years of the 20th century, unlike shingle roofs. Plank roofs had trails for the rainwater, and they were protected with a tar covering. House Rävä originally had birch bark roof covering the right side room and shingle roof for the others. During the building’s move to the museum grounds in 1960, the entire roof area was changed into shingles. The roof on House Pulkkanen was of birch bark, but changed into shingle roof in the 1940s, and even later back to birch bark. After the house had been moved to the museum grounds, the roof material was once again changed into shingles in 1989.

Exterior Paint

Painting the house exteriors wasn’t a common practice in Kuusamo, since the houses were made of naturally greyed pine tree logs. Only fairly late did people begin to paint their houses with either red or yellow ochre paint. Until the Second World War most houses were grey and unpainted. After the war, people began to paint their window sashes white and around that time white paint became more commonly used in housing decorations in general.

The Collection

The local museum’s collection consists of over 1500 items. They are related to the most common livelihoods of local peasants, such as hunting, fishing, reindeer herding and farming. The main building of the museum is furnished in the style of the 1930s. Other buildings support this main theme of the exhibit. The items have been collected either through donations or from auctions all around Kuusamo.