Photo: IleMK · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Töllinmäki

Töllinmäki in Heinijärvi, Hämeenkyrö, is the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning writer F. E. Sillanpää, where he wrote his debut novel.

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About the museum

Töllinmäki is the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning writer Frans Emil Sillanpää (1888–1964) in the village of Heinijärvi in Hämeenkyrö. Sillanpää’s parents lost their fortune by paying for their son’s education and went bankrupt in Haukijärvi. In 1905 they bought a former shoemaker’s cottage at Töllinmäki. Sillanpää spent his youth there, studied in Tampere and Helsinki, and returned home after his difficult years. He wrote his debut novel, Elämä ja aurinko (Life and Sun, 1916), in the back room of the cottage, which his father had built for him. His parents lived in the cottage until his father’s death in 1921, after which it was sold at auction.

The cottage changed owners several times until the F. E. Sillanpää Society (F. E. Sillanpään Seura) bought it in the 1970s and converted it into a museum. Arson damaged the building in the late 1980s, and volunteers restored it. The buildings and the yard were protected under the Built Heritage Act in 1984. They form part of the nationally significant F. E. Sillanpää homes cultural environment, which also includes the Myllykolu crofter’s cottage and the Saavutus villa. The museum is run by the F. E. Sillanpää Society.

Highlights

Sillanpää’s childhood home and the place where he wrote his debut novel
Buildings and yard protected under the Built Heritage Act
Part of the F. E. Sillanpää homes cultural environment
Electronic guide to the Sillanpää sites