Home - På svenska - Suomeksi - Auf Deutsch - En français EXPERIENCE A
LIVING MUSEUM!
The
historic downtown of Kristiinankaupunki (Kristinestad), with its
wooden houses, narrow streets and beautiful buildings, is alive with
tales of the world in former times. The sea is a natural part of
this coastal city’s history, as can be seen in its traditions of
shipbuilding, sailing and fishing. The countryside surrounding
Kristiinankaupunki completes this rich picture of traditional
southern Ostrobothnian culture. Each of the many museums found in
the city present their own unique and fascinating aspects of this
world from the past. WELCOME!
The Lebell Merchant’s house
You are welcome to come and acquaint yourself with the life of a
merchant family from the 17- and 1800s! The formation of the Lebell
family is an interesting tale. The family founder, polish prisoner
of war Casimir Subkowski, was sent to Finland as a prisoner in 1702.
Here he became acquainted with a local Kristiinankaupunki
girl, Anna Enholm. The young couple fell in love and Anna’s family
succeeded in arranging Subkowski’s release in 1708. The young Pole
changed his name to Casper Lebell and in 1720 obtained the right to
become a merchant in
Kristiinankaupunki.
During the lifetime of his son, Casper Lebell Junior, the family
wealth grew due to profits from trade in tar, wood products and salt.
Casper Junior also served as deputy mayor and as a magistrate. The current Lebell
Merchant’s house was built in 1762. The building has been a museum
since 1939. The buildings interior is one of a kind. The house
features a baroque-style salon that is the only one of its kind in
Finland. The salon’s ceiling paintings and linen wallpapers are
original and its green ceramic-tile oven is probably the oldest in
Finland. The museum in its entirety also includes its
neighbouring building, the white stucco Empire-style Felén
house, built in 1841. The Felén house has been a part of the museum
since 1996 and it is used to host conferences and special events and
to display special exhibits.
The Kiili
local museum
The Kiili local museum is located in Siipyy,
in the southern part of Kristiinankaupunki. Kiili is an open-air museum as
well as a camping area, inn, guest marina and
a quality youth hostel. The museum area with circa 30 buildings presents the
traditional fishing- and peasant cultures of the Siipyy area.
The Kiili museum area features
several exhibit groups. These include, among others, school, phone
and shipbuilding exhibits. A charming little island chapel can also
be found here. This chapel may be used to arrange weddings with a
special atmosphere. A wedding reception site is available right next
door at the harbour’s old salting factory,
now used as a reception and dance hall.
During the summer months many
classes, celebrations and special events are held at Kiili. The
facilities may also be rented for private events. Kilens
hembygdsgård The
Maritime
museum
Up until the middle 1800s
Kristiinankaupunki’s port and shipyards were among the most important
in Finland. Ships sailed from Kristiinankaupunki to ports all over
the world, travelling even as far as Australia. The most important
exports were wood products and tar. These ships returned loaded with
salt, sugar and tobacco as well as a sprinkling of customs and
fashions from the world abroad. The Maritime museum is
located in the beautiful Empire-style wooden house of shipping
magnate S.A. Wendelin. The house was built in 1837 and is located at
the edge of the market square. The Maritime museum’s site is one
of many impressive buildings constructed in the 1800s as downtown
homes by
Kristiinankaupunki’s shipping magnates and merchants. Currently the
lower level of this building is used to house the city library. The Maritime museum is located in the attic where Wendelin once had his shipping company’s sail-making workshops. In this area a ships deck has been constructed complete with helm, belaying pins and the captain’s cabin. Museum exhibits showcase shipbuilding and the skill of the ship carpenters. Join us here to catch the sent of tar in your nostrils and experience the excitement of our old seadogs’ wild adventures.
The
Carlsro museum
The Kristiinankaupunki city museum was originally built as a summer
home. Built by Kristiinankaupunki shipping magnate and commercial
counsellor Carl Alfred Carlström in 1896, the home is located on
the shores of the lake Suurjärvi, about 5 kilometres north of
Kristiinankaupunki. Carlsro is the only remaining house of what was
once an entire community of merchants’ and shipping magnates’
summer homes on the shores of the lake Suurjärvi. Carlsro functioned as C.A. Carlström’s summer home until 1910.
Since then the house used as, among other things, a boarding house
and a summer hotel. In 1960 Kristiinankaupunki collector Åke
Weckström (1909-1989) purchased Carlsro and used it to house his
collections. The house was opened to the public as the Carlsro
museum in 1961. After Weckström’s death the museum was
administered by the Carlsro Museum Foundation. At the beginning of
2002 Carlsro was turned over to the city of Kristiinankaupunki and
became the city museum. The
museum is the life work of one man, Åke Weckström. The museum
collection of some 11 000 items has been gathered from the
Kristiinankaupunki area such that the history of the city and its
occupants is exceptionally well presented. The museum and its
surrounding gardens are currently undergoing restoration. The
purpose of this restoration is to restore this beautiful old
building and its gardens to their former glory and to make them once
again just as they were in the days when C.A. Carlström spent his
summers on the lush shores of the lake Suurjärvi. The Carlsro
museum area is a charming and unique entirety offering one a glimpse
into the carefree summer life of the bourgeoisie in the 1800s. Carlsro/ The Carlsro museum
Wolf
Cave and Wolf Cave exhibition Wolf
Cave is a wide horizontal crevice in the primary rock and is named
for its location on Wolf Mountain. The cave was formed as a result
of erosion, and it is estimated to be more than 2.6 million years
old. In the interglacial period, when the sea level was just outside
the mouth of the cave, it was filled with layers of sediment and
remained untouched, even though the cave is widely known in the area.
The cave opening is 116.5 meters above the current sea level, and
the ceiling of the cave is 2.2 meters high at the highest point. It
is difficult to precisely determine the size of Wolf Cave because it
is still partially filled by sediment layers, but it is estimated to
be over 400 m². Wolf
Cave is situated in city of Kristiinankaupunki, but land-owner is
Karijoki municipality. This
cave is so far the only place on earth where evidence of human
inhabitancy has been found in a place that was later, during the ice
age, covered by a continental glacier. Wolf Cave is northern
Europe's oldest known human dwelling site. It
is very difficult to collect information about humans in Finland
prior to the last ice age. In most places the last ice age destroyed
evidence from the warmer interglacial periods of previous ice ages.
Wolf Cave is like a small pocket that succeeded in avoiding the
destrfuction. Because of this the cave is an exceptionally valuable
research site. In the sediment levels of Wolf Cave we have found
evidence of human habitation that includes stone tools, stone chips
left from the making of such tools and old hearth remains. Based on
the sediment level in which these artefacts were found and age
calculations from analysis of pollen samples, these artefacts are
estimated to be at least 120 000 years old. This means Neanderthals
must have dwelt in the cave prior to the last ice age. It is even
possible that they were there during one of the warmer breaks in the
Saale Glaciation, the ice age that preceded the last ice age. Located
at the Pyhävuori recreational area, the Wolf Cave exhibition
includes an audio-visual presentation of the landscape and life in
and around the Wolf Cave some 120,000 years ago. The scale models of
the Wolf Cave and its surroundings and the Neanderthal humans are
important elements in the exhibit. Wolf
Cave exhibition
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