Photo: Camilla Paavonen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mäntyharjun museo

The Iso-Pappila museum area in central Mäntyharju, with a 19th-century parsonage setting, a local history exhibition and summer exhibitions.

Opening hoursFree admission Café

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About the museum

The Iso-Pappila museum area is located in central Mäntyharju. The area takes its name from the vicar’s parsonage, built during the time of Dean (rovasti) A. A. Berner, which, when completed in 1812, was the second-largest building in the parish after the church. The present parsonage’s Empire-style exterior dates mainly from 1854, and the building was extended again in 1933.

The courtyard also includes a 19th-century väentupa (workers’ quarters), a storehouse, a woodshed and carriage shed (halkovaja-vaunuliiteri), a large stone cowshed built in 1899, a threshing barn, a smithy, cellars and a garden. The väentupa is furnished as a typical Mäntyharju farmhouse main room, and at its other end there is an exhibition on the history of Mäntyharju. The upper floor of the cowshed holds horse-drawn vehicles.

The main building of the parsonage has themed exhibitions in summer, and while the exhibition is running a school museum classroom and a café are also open. Summer theatre is staged in the area, and next to it are a veterans’ park and the Taidekeskus Salmela (Salmela Art Centre). Iso-Pappila was chosen as the Savo-Karelia local museum of 2013.

Highlights

Empire-style parsonage from 1854 and its courtyard
Farmhouse main room in the väentupa and an exhibition on Mäntyharju’s history
Photographs and photographic equipment by Nestor Kurvinen
Collection of horse-drawn vehicles in the upper floor of the cowshed
School museum classroom and art café in summer

Permanent exhibition

Mäntyharjun historia väentuvassa – The väentupa is furnished as a Mäntyharju farmhouse main room, and the exhibition on Mäntyharju’s history includes photographs by the photographer Nestor Kurvinen and his photographic equipment.