Pielinen Open-Air Museum

The second-largest open-air museum in Finland, on a low hill above the lake five minutes north of the town centre. More than seventy buildings — log farmhouses, barns, smoke saunas, a windmill, a chapel, fishermen's huts — moved here from the surrounding region and reconstructed since the museum was founded in 1959.

The buildings span the 17th to the 20th century and document the world of small-holder Karelian families: the smoke-blackened sauna, the dark wooden granary, the open fireplace in the main room. Open daily June to August, weekends only in shoulder season, closed in winter. Allow at least two hours.

things to do museum sight
A story
The museum's centrepiece is a Karelian smoke sauna — a small windowless log building with no chimney, fired up the day before bathing. The walls and ceiling are entirely black with soot. This is how saunas were built in Finland until the 20th century, and the museum keeps theirs in working order; a few times a year, on heritage days, you can use it.