Lahti Historical Museum

Today I visited the Lahti Historical Museum which is housed in the former main building of the famous old Lahti manor house. 

The building was designed by architect Hjalmar Åberg (1870-1935) and built during the years 1897-1898. The manor house was in the owned by Captain and Court Counsellor August Fellman and his family until the year 1919, when the town of Lahti gained possession of the manor. The town has used the main building for a variety of purposes. It has hosted schools and has been part of a military hospital during the war. In the mid 1960s Lahti historical museum became its new master.

The latest renovation work of the manor house was carried out during the years 2001-2004, and the museum was re-opened to the public in the spring of 2005. 

Special exhibitions are situated on the first and third floor of the museum. The second floor hosts the permanent exhibition of the Klaus Holma Memorial Collection.

My extra photo is of a female bronze in a fountain. which is situated in front of the museum. The light was catching her nicely while all around her was shade. The Aino Fountain - a Bronze statue by Emil Wikstrom, is in the park of the Lahti Historical Museum.

Aino is a figure in the Finnish national epic Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to the storied Väinämöinen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if Vainamoinen would save him from drowning in the swamp into which Joukahainen had been thrown.

She refused - Aino drowned herself (or ended up as a mermaid). However, legend says she returned to taunt the grieving Vainamoinen as a salmon.