The Raahe region is a favorite destination for museum enthusiasts, as it offers a variety of historical attractions that can fill several days. At the sites of the Raahe Museum, the oldest local museum in Finland, you can explore the fascinating maritime history of the area. Additionally, the region's other museums will acquaint you with the cultural heritage of the area.
1. Packhouse Museum
By the sea, in Old Town Raahe, lies the Packhouse Museum. This oldest of the museum sites guides its visitors through Raahe's successful sailing ship era and the treasures it brought, such as the exotic souvenirs brought back by sailors from their journeys. The museum’s Church Hall features the magnificent wooden sculptures made by Mikael Balt for the old church of Raahe. Their enchantingly vivid colours and intricate ornamentation harken back to the Baroque period.
The Packhuone Museum is open year-round.
2. Crown Granary
The most famous and internationally renowned attraction of the Raahe Museum, the world's oldest surviving diving suit, "The Old Gentleman," can be marveled at in the Crown Granary Museum. The newest member of the museum family is located just a stone's throw from the city center. The former state grain warehouse sheds light on Raahe's history from the dim mists of prehistory to the present day. At this museum, you get to do more than just look at the items on display, as touching and trying things out are very much permitted. Between experiencing the museum’s other content, visitors can pet the seal lady Harmastus, try on a heavy diver’s helmet, lift loads with pulleys or work on an ancient Giant’s Church stone enclosure.
Crown Granary Museum is open year-round.
3. The Saloinen Museum
The Saloinen Museum is an extensive complex consisting of 18 different buildings. The buildings and exhibits of the museum depict old sources of livelihood in the Saloinen region, i.e. fishing and farming. In the museum area, you can find, for instance, a forge, the fishing lodge of Eera Anttila as well as of the old log cabin of the Mutala farm, the history of which can be traced back to 1791.
The Saloinen Local Heritage Museum is open from July 2nd to July 27th.
4. The Saloinen Computer Museum
The Saloinen Computer Museum is a dream come true for nostalgic gamers and computer enthusiasts! The museum's highlight is Saloinen's second computer from 1971, the Datasaab D22. The museum also features a corner dedicated to old machines from the Raahe Computer Science Institute. In the Microcomputer Room, you will find various home computers and gaming consoles. The machines currently powered on are available for you to try out and play!
The Saloisten Computer Museum is open in July.
5. Annala Local History Museum
The atmospheric museum area of Annala includes 22 buildings with nearly 8,000 objects. The most important function of the Annala museum is to describe rural life before the era of tractors.
The Annala Local Heritage Museum is open from June 11th to August 4th.
6. The Sovelius House
Upstairs in the Sovelius House, presumably the oldest preserved building in Raahe, there is a restored home of a shipowner. The home offers an overview of the whole panoply of the wealthy home inhabited by a shipowner and merchant in the 1890s. The exquisite heirloom furniture, abundance of small objects, novelties of the period, ship paintings and traditional house plants take the visitor on a journey back in time to the glory of the Age of Sail.
The Sovelius House is open from June 24th to August 4th.
7. Old Pharmacy
The Old Pharmacy and its valuable collections are located in an authentic pharmacy environment in the heart of Old Raahe, its entrance guarded by an eagle. The objects exhibited include large numbers of wooden medicine boxes, glass medicine bottles, ceramic jars, various tools used for making medicines as well as medicinal ingredients, whose smell lingers in the air of the pharmacy museum as a reminder of the days when medicines were made on the spot from start to finish. Located behind the desk are the medicine chamber and laboratory, where pharmacy specialists used to make products with names like Kamala (Terrible) and Prinssintipat (Prince Drops).
Old Pharmacy is open from June 24th to August 4th.
8. Ojala Museum
The Ojala Museum is situated on the Old Ojala farm, where the lush courtyard hides buildings containing primarily agricultural artifacts from the early 1900s, as well as an intriguing collection of coffee cups.
The Ojala Local Heritage Museum is open during the Pattijoki Days from August 2nd to 4th and by appointment.
9. Olkijoki Treaty Museum
The Olkijoki Treaty Museum introduces its visitors to the times of the Finnish War (1808–1809), as the Lassila Inn was the place where the Olkijoki Treaty that led to the truce between Russia and Sweden was signed.. In 1918, the main building of the Lassila farm was for the most part demolished and the remaining part was converted into a museum. The rooms where the Convention of Olkijoki was signed were kept as a historical memento of the Finnish War.
The Olkijoki Treaty Museum is open by appointment.
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The museum complex in Raahe is the oldest local museum in Finland. -
In the Packhouse Museum, you can find magnificent church sculptures by Mikael Balt. -
The world's oldest diving suit, the Old Gentleman, can be found in the Crown Granary Museum. -
There is plenty to see and experience at the Saloinen Local Heritage Museum, from the Stone Age to the present day. -
The nearly 8000 items at the Annala Museum showcase rural life before the era of tractors. -
At the Sovelius House, you can explore the home of a shipowner-merchant from the 1890s. -
The collection of the Old Pharmacy is one of the most valuable pharmaceutical collections in Finland. -
The Ojala Local Heritage Museum is an old farm where you can see agricultural equipment from the early 20th century.