Murtovaara House Museum

The Murtovaara House Museum is an unspoilt Crown Forest gateway to a bygone era, which is a unique experience in itself. Your route to the wilderness house follows beautiful forest paths, and when you arrive, you will see a majestic building and a 19th-century North Karelian courtyard unlike any other. In keeping with the Karelian building tradition, the courtyard’s dwellings, outbuildings and cattle sheds are grouped in a sheltered, rectangular circle, open at the corners. The buildings you see in Murtovaara were built over a period of 100 years, from the 1840s to the 1940s, and you can see the changes in their construction: during your visit you can compare, for example, the two small smokehouses and the large, open-air main building, begun in the late 19th century, with the more recent buildings.

Murtovaara is known to have been inhabited as early as the 1840s. However, actual information about its buildings and inhabitants dates back to 1868, from when the Lipponen family first lived in Murtovaara, and later on, during the time of the forest clearances, numerous smokers and other people of various kinds. The last inhabitant of the farm was Hilja Lipponen, who left the farm in 1985. Since 1972, however, Murtovaara has been a museum.

The history of Murtovaara tells you its unforgettable story and the traces left by its inhabitants. That’s why Murtovaara is the only museum in Eastern Finland dedicated to the settlement of Hazara, and is a cultural environment of national importance. Heed the call of Murtovaara and find your way through the forest paths to the ancient farmstead!

Tickets 9 € / adult, child under 18 yrs free entrance. Open from 22 June to 8 August at 12 to 6 pm. Guided tours 12 €/adult, 3 €/child (incl. entrance, coffee or a juice, bun).

Group bookings and enquiries: +35845 138 2705 / Wilma Klippel.

A visit to the Yläpihan tila farm can be combined with the same trip.