Industrial workers’ housing museum

An exhibition on the living conditions of industrial workers in the 1900s and 1960s. Furnished apartments in a residential building and social services presented in a sauna building. Industry started gathering in the Imatra region around the River Vuoksi with its many rapids towards the end of the 19th century. Large-scale industry started to form when the limited company Tornator began building industrial plants in 1895 after buying a farm along the river. The farmland included half of the waterfalls of the Niskakoski and Tainionkoski rapids. The area started to become an industrial region.

The company built approximately 20 residential buildings with multiple flats for its workforce, first in 1896, and then over the following years. The flats intended for families consisted of a bedroom, kitchen, and pantry, with a total surface area of 20-25 m2.

Now, the apartments of the Industrial Workers’ Housing Museum are decorated in the style of housing of different decades from the early 20th century to the 1960s. The partly block-built sauna building has been restored to its original appearance.

Most of the artefacts in the Industrial Housing Museum have been donated by residents of the Tainionkoski area. This has made it possible to preserve for posterity the material culture associated with the everyday life and housing of industrial workers from the late 19th century to the post-mid 20th century.

Admission to the museum is free of charge.

For visitors arriving by car

If you arrive by car, please park in the car park to the south of the museum, accessed via Tainio Square.