The Kerimäki Open-Air Museum

The Kerimäki-seura association founded the open-air museum in 1966 and moved farm buildings to the museum site from all over Kerimäki in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. A house from the nearby Rauhalinna farmstead, ‘Romu-Heikki’s house’, had already been moved to the site. The storerooms at its ends house exhibitions of old crafts tools, and there is a cart shed in the middle with horse-drawn vehicles on display. The name of the house refers to its owner Heikki Häyrynen, who lived in Rauhalinna between 1916 and 1943. He was eccentric and had a unique sense of humour. He received his nickname Romu-Heikki (‘Junk Heikki’) because of his hobby of collecting old objects.

The chimneyless hut located on the grounds is the older side of the main building of the Saarela farm in Herttuansaari. It was built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The area also features a smoke sauna with a traditional interior, a windmill with a framework that dates back to the 1850’s and several other buildings.

One of the three separate barns has been turned into a bridal house with trousseau on display, one is a meat storehouse that exhibits fishing and hunting related items and one is a kitchen building. The mill barn has two doors and features old objects and tools used for farming and forestry.