Häme Medieval Festival

Häme Medieval Festival is the biggest historical festival in Finland and one of the well known events in Häme area. In 2019 there was a record of 28 500 visitors. Small event has grown as a remarkable festival changing the surroundings of the castle as a colorful one-week-trip to the medieval times in every August.

The festival weekend includes fire tournament, tavern and performers, Viking and buhurt combats as well as animal friends and the area for children. For a full medieval experience there is all kinds of program luring also international visitors.

There will be also several hundred campers who arrive often already on Wednesday to enjoy the medieval atmosphere with us until Sunday evening. The camping areas are divided by themes: Vikings, Medieval Camp, Knights, Fantasy Camp for medieval fantasy fans and Plastic Camp for ordinary campers. To camp in certain area one should have the kind of tent and beddings the theme requires.

Performers and market sellers bring internationality to the event, many arrive from Eastern European countries as well as all over Europe. Spectacular view of the castle and the medieval music on the background, the medieval market area and workshops create an overall experience that is difficult to achieve anywhere else. Smells and sounds of the alley of blacksmiths, soap makers, dyers of yarns, medieval weapons are all there to see and experience.

Come, see and experience medieval Häme with us!

The Prison

Open during summer season. The former Hämeenlinna county prison, located next to Häme Castle, is now Finland’s largest prison museum – the Prison. Built in 1871, this first prison with cells in Finland ceased its penitentiary operations in 1993 and the county prison was turned into a museum in 1997. The Prison prompts visitors to contemplate the fundamental questions of humanity. It examines the history of criminal sanctions and prison life by evoking emotions and breaking preconceptions. The past lives on in the wall scribblings, the objects, and the time-worn cells.

Häme Castle

Häme Castle is a medieval castle in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The Castle was most likely built during the late 13th century to serve as military base in the border zone between Sweden and Novgorod. At the end of the Middle ages the castle was governed by some of the most influential Swedish houses, the Tott, the Sture and the Posse. In addition to its status as a military fortress and home for Swedish nobility, the castle has seen use as a prison, and is currently a museum operated by the National Museum of Finland. The castle is one of the main tourist attractions of southern Finland, being the centerpiece of the city and a popular venue for events, including medieval fairs and other events.

Holy Cross Church in Hattula

Holy Cross Church in Hattula serves as one of the churches of the local Lutheran congregation. As a museum church is open during most of the summer season and offers guided tours for individual tourists. Groups must book tours in advance. The Lutheran congregation in Hattula arranges Sunday services and concerts in the Holy Cross Church during the summer.

The church has pages on Facebook and Instagram, these channels provide up-to-date information on exceptional schedules. Follow @pyhanristinkirkko.

Holy Cross Church was built at the end of the 15th century, making it about five hundred years old. One of the distinctive features of the church is its red brick, as grey stone was the usual material of construction in Finland at the time. Only three medieval buildings in Finland were made of brick: the Turku Cathedral, the Castle of Hämeenlinna and this church.

The church contains about two hundred paintings. They were painted at the beginning of the 16th century (1510). The identity of the painters is unknown but they were most likely Finns, possibly nuns. The technique was called al secco. The pictures were painted on a dry surface with colors dissolved in lime-water.

The church contains many wooden sculptures. The oldest of them is the triumph crucifix, made by the master of Lieto, the first known Finnish sculptor. There are two pulpits in the church. The smaller one is the oldest extant pulpit in Finland, donated to the church in 1550. The other pulpit is from the 18th century. Both of them are hand made by Finnish artisans.

Museo Militaria – The Artillery, Engineer and Signals Museum of Finland

Museo Militaria is a war history museum showcasing the history of Finnish artillery, engineering and signalling from the Middle Ages to modern times. The museum is situated next to Häme Castle in Hämeenlinna and is open for visitors all year around. The museum has a permanent exhibition in the main building, an outdoor exhibition and temporary exhibitions. The museum organises lectures and various events as well as guided tours in Finnish, Swedish and English.

B & B Matin ja Maijan Majatalo

In our hospitable bed and breakfast, You will be accommodated in a century-old Villa with luxurious rooms right in the centrum of Hämeenlinna city.

We are here to serve our customers – You will sleep better than at home!

Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna, Hämeenlinna

Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna is being renewed and the hotel will be closed from 1 December 2024. All the facilities of the hotel will be renovated. The hotel will reopen in the summer of 2025.

Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna, Hämeenlinna – The happiest lake hotel in Finland!

Original Sokos Hotel Vaakuna has a strong sense of authenticity, happiness, joy and relaxation. This hotel is a “happy people’s hotel and restaurant by the lake”.
The hotel offers you the opportunity to relax by the Vanajavesi lake, cycle or walk a beach route with a fantastic view, or perhaps go canoeing to enjoy the wonderful nature. In winter, the lakeview will take your breath away. In summer, you can feel a refreshing gust of wind from the lake on our terrace, just a railing’s length from the lake.

The hotel’s unique restaurant is called Le Blason. It is French for a coat-of-arms – Vaakuna, the hotel’s name in Finnish. The restaurant is strongly committed to high-quality ingredients, honest flavours and dining together.

Welcome to the happy Sokos Hotel Vaakuna in Hämeenlinna!

Hotel Emilia

The privately owned Hotel Emilia is located in the heart of the town of Hämeenlinna. Our hotel is recently renovated and we have 41 comfortable rooms, all equipped with individually controlled air conditioning, bathroom, TV, telephone and wireless internet access. Additionally, we have some pet rooms and a room specially designed for physically disabled people.
On the top floor we have minisuite, which has its own sauna and a balcony.

All our rooms have been decorated with Marimekko fabrics to create comfortable Scandinavian atmosphere.
Our hotel also has its own night club, Emilia Klubi, which is open on weekends. In the summer time you can enjoy breakfast, coffee or fresh drinks on our terrace.

Tiirinkoski Factory

Located in Hämeenlinna, the Tiirinkoski factory exudes a warm atmosphere and boasts a stunning setting. Housed in a barn building constructed in 1910, this lifestyle-style store and cafe offer mouthwatering Belgian waffles made from the farm’s own pea flour.

Tiirinkoski has a long history of farming, and currently, the farm raises native Åland sheep, Gotland sheep, and Highland cattle. In addition to growing grain, the farm also cultivates peas. Apart from grain and pea products, Tiirinkoski sells lamb and beef products from its own livestock.

Visitors can relish in the delights of the cafe, shop for interior decor items, clothing, and even their own sheepskins, yarns, and food products at the store. Tiirinkoski farm is definitely worth a visit, even from afar!

Tannery Museum

At Portaan Nahkurinverstas, a former tannery shop, you can enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of an idyllic countryside village.

The old tannery – established in 1880’s – serves now as a museum where it’s possible to experience in an authentic environment how the tanners, shoemakers and saddlers worked and lived in the past centuries. All the machinery, several smaller tools and some products made in the tannery are still left in the building.

In the museum building there is also a restaurant serving drinks, food, coffee etc.

Both museum and restaurant are regularly open in summer, and in other seasons on request.

Restaurant Villa

Stylish surroundings, immediate and warm service and, above all, good food – all this is Forssa’s own restaurant Villa. Our impeccable á la carte menu is built from good, domestic ingredients. Experienced cooks as well as lovers of traditional home cooking will find a dish they like from us, not forgetting children.

Forssa Museum

Forssa museum is located in the historic Spinning Mill Area which has been renovated into a vibrant cultural centre.

Our permanent exhibition the City of Colourful Cloth tells how Forssa evolved from a group of farming villages of the middle of the 19th century into a modern industrial city. It tells how Axel Wahren founded Forssa and how “cotton angels” came to work in the factory. It tells about the time when the river through the city got blue, green or red, depending on the dyeing plant. It also tells about later days when rotating machines produced kilometres of colourful cloth, and when houses were made of concrete.

The City of Forssa was established around textile industry. Swedish born Axel Wilhelm Wahren (1814-1885) founded a cotton spinning mill by the side of Kuhalankoski rapids in 1849. The mill was soon followed by a weaving mill, yarn dye works and Finlands first industrial fabric printing plant. In 1934 the Forssa Company founded by Wahren was merged with the Finlayson textile group from Tampere. From this merge a company named Finlayson-Forssa was born. Textile production in Forssa ended in 2009. The heritage of the textile factory is now stored in Forssa museum’s textile archive, which contains fabric samples, sketches and artifacts originating from between the 1800’s and 2000’s.

Forssa Museum Pattern Centre

Pattern Centre is the home of the Forssa museum’s collection of printed textiles. The space is divided into an exhibition space, museum shop, archive, and research facilities. The permanent exhibition opened its doors at the end of April 2022.

The exhibition includes information, illustrations, and photographs of designers and their time as well as printed textiles, made into textile installations. These installations have been created to showcase different styles and decades of Finnish printed textile design. You can learn about color layering, color theory, and textile printing in our exhibition that invites you to touch, feel and try for yourself!

Background in Finnish Textile History:
The new exhibition tells the story of Finnish textile printing, an industry that began in Forssa in the 1860s. Forssa maintained its status as a focal place of printmaking know-how and design, through the age of industrial textile printing in Finland, and continued onwards from the 1930s as an important part of Finlayson Co.

From the year 1951, the Forssa design studio hosted textile designers and artists who created patterns of different colors and designs: stripes, polka dots, florals, abstracts, and everything in between, always getting inspired by the movements of art, popular culture, architecture, and design of their time. These printed fabrics dressed our nation, decorated our homes, and spread across the border to international markets.

Opening hours for the summer season.
Mon: closed
Tue-Fri: 10-16
Sat-Sun: 12-16

Opening hours outside the summer season (September ->)
Mon: closed
Tue-Fri: 10-16
Sat-Sun: open upon request, please contact us in advance.

Guided tours are available.

Dinner at the Hut

In the middle of the mysterious forest there is a hut (lean-to) welcoming You with an open fire. In the hut, You can curl up on soft pillows and relax watching the campfire´s dance. At the same time, the chef starts cooking over an open fire for Your dinner, which is made from local ingredients. In addition to food, you will enjoy the beauty, silence and relaxed atmosphere of a Finnish forest. The shed is located in Hevossilta area, only about five kilometers from Forssa.
Dinner is available year around and is suitable for e.g. for groups of friends, as a reacreational among staff etc.

Hotel Maakunta

Idyllic and cosy Hotel Maakunta in the heart of old historical Forssa.
The hotel has been founded in 1940 and was completely renovated in 2008. Many famous Finns such as the former President of Finland, Urho Kekkonen, have stayed here. The hotel has also been a shooting location for the Rauni Mollberg TV movie: ‘Puu kulkee’ and Aki Kaurismäki film: ‘Take care of your scarf, Tatiana’. The hotel building itself is under protection of The Finnish Heritage Agency. Forssa is situated only 1hrs drive away from Helsinki, Turku and Tampere.

Hykkilän Huvilat Lakeside Cottages

Would you like to relax, enjoy fresh air and silence near the nature, and count stars in the evening? Come to us at Hykkilän Huvilat, on the shore of Lake Kuivajärvi, where are our wooden, well-equipped and warm holiday cottages.
We are open year-round in the peaceful environment of Southwestern Finland in Tammela. Helsinki, Turku and Tampere are only a one-and-a-half hours’ drive from Tammela Municipality and Hykkilä.
Environmental values are very important for us. This can be seen from the energy we produce using solar power and how we sort our waste.
You are warmly welcome to Hykkilän Huvilat.

Eerikkilä Villas and Holiday Apartments

The Eerikkilä Sport & Outdoor Resort provides a variety of accommodation options for everyone. Whether you are a team of junior football players or a couple looking for premium holiday accommodation, we got you covered. All our accommodation options are located near to our activities. The modern & spacious log villas are the sizes of 190m2 and 132m2 and havre beds for 9-12 persons. A beautiful forest and lake landscape opens out from a huge floor to the ceiling window. The bright & modern furnished apartments have beds for 4 guests.

The Finnish Glass Museum

The Finnish Glass Museum is a museum with national responsibility focusing on glass design and the history of glass. The museum has operated since 1981 in a renovated glassworks in Riihimäki. The renovation was designed by Tapio Wirkkala.

The Finnish Glass Museum presents the history of glass dating back over 4,000 years and the 300-year history of Finland’s glass industry. The collections consist mostly of Finnish household, design and art glass from the 18th-21th centuries.

The exhibits on the ground floor display the early stages of the history of glass and provide basic information on glassmaking techniques, including glassblowing, the mechanical production of glass and decorating techniques.

The upper floor of the building is devoted to the history of the Finnish glass industry and products such as bottles, polished crystal and pressed glass. The history of Finnish glass design is divided into sections on the history of serial manufacture, art glass, and glass art.

Temporary exhibitions are on show in the old glassblowing facilities.

Hyttikortteli in Riihimäki

Walk down the narrow alleys of Hyttikortteli, sense the atmosphere of the old days and marvel at beautiful gardens with hammocks and paper lanterns. You can visit small glass studios and even try glassblowing yourself at Mafka & Alakoski studio.

Riihimäen Lasi started its operations in the locality in 1910. The glass factory appreciated the well-being of many employees of the glass factory and one of its forms was the workers’ residential area built around the glass factory, Hyttikortteli. The apartments with their park-like surroundings were once a valuable addition to the glass factories and their families. In addition to the residential buildings, the factory also supported the employees’ own home construction.

When the factory closed in 1990, its idyllic residential environment has remained almost unchanged. In addition, houses suitable for the environment have been built.

The Hunting Museum of Finland

This is an indoor wilderness experience only about one hour north of Helsinki. Take a picture with a bear, the mythical animal in Finnish folklore, meet the moose and get to know other Finnish game animals. There are multiple exhibitions, held annually, about the wonders of Finnish nature. Finland is a country inhabited by hunters and during its 10 000 year old history, hunting has gone through massive changes from a way of earning one’s living to a still popular hobby.

Restaurant Obelix Riihimäki

Ravintola Obelix is a cozy Restaurant serving a tasty lunch from and delicious À la Carte. From the À la Carte menu you can find a suitable alternative from lighter salad dishes to delicious steaks. Restaurant Obelix offers classic simple food with a modern twist. We bring out the best flavors of each ingredient in each meal. Table reservations by phone, email or Quandoo.