Riihisaari Saimaa Museum

A regional museum on a small island next to the castle, focused on Lake Saimaa and its boats

Address Riihisaari, Savonlinna

The Riihisaari Museum, also known as the Savonlinna Provincial Museum, occupies a former warehouse on a small island linked by footbridge to the mainland next to the castle. It covers the history of the Savonlinna region and the wider Lake Saimaa system — the boat-building, log-floating, and steamship traffic that defined the area until the railways arrived in the 20th century.

The outdoor exhibits include three preserved historic ships moored at the dock: the Salama, the Mikko, and the Savonlinna. The museum also has a small but well-curated section on the Saimaa ringed seal, the freshwater seal that survives only in this lake system. Open daily in summer, weekends only in winter.

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The museum's most striking exhibits are the four restored 19th-century steam vessels — including the Salama, a steamship that sank in Lake Saimaa in 1898 and was raised, dried out, and reassembled almost intact in the 1970s. The boats are still afloat in the harbour next to the museum.

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