Seurasaari () is an island and a district in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Finland, known mostly as the location of the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, which consists of old, mainly wooden buildings transplanted from elsewhere in Finland and placed in the dense forest landscape of the island. Squirrel in Seurasaari autumn

Every summer, many Helsinkians come to Seurasaari to enjoy the rural, peaceful outdoor atmosphere. Despite the visitors, the island has a variety of wildlife, especially birds, but also

red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris''), also called Eurasian red squirrel, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is an arboreal and primarily herbivorous rodent and common throughout Eurasia. Taxonomy There have been ...

s and

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

s. The height of the island's popularity is at

Midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of Eu ...

, when a huge bonfire (, ) is built on a small isle just off the island's coast, and ignited by a newlywed couple. Thousands of people, both tourists and Helsinkians, watch the burning of the bonfire from both Seurasaari itself and from boats anchored near it. Seurasaari also includes one of only two nudist beaches in Helsinki and one of only three in the entire country. Unlike the other nudist beaches, the beach is segregated for men and women separately with no unisex nudist area and is subject to a fee. In October 2024, it was announced that the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum would be closed due to budget cuts by

Petteri Orpo Antti Petteri Orpo (; born 3 November 1969) is a Finland, Finnish politician currently serving as the prime minister of Finland since 2023 and as the leader of the National Coalition Party since 2016. He briefly served as speaker of the Parliame ...

's government affecting the Finnish Heritage Agency.

Gallery

File:The Granary at Seurasaari.jpg, The Granary, built in the North-Ostrobothnian style. File:Water Mill at Seurasaari.jpg, The Water Mill. File:Tree Storehouse at Seurasaari.jpg, The Tree Storehouse from Petsamo File:Utsjoki Storehouse at Seurasaari.jpg, Storehouse from Utsjoki File:Utsjoki Hay-Cabin.jpg, Hay Cabin from Utsjoki File:Niemelä tenant farm (Niemelän torppa) Seurasaari.jpg, Niemelä tenant farm. File:Building at Niemala Tenant Farm.jpg, Building at Niemelä tenant farm. File:Apotropaic pentagram at Niemala.jpg, Apotropaic mark on a farmhouse from Niemelä Tenant Farm File:Pertinotsa 1.jpg, Pertinotsa farmhouse. File:A wind mill at Seurasaari.jpg, Farm windmill File:Cloth and Food Stores at Seurasaari.jpg, Clothes and food stores. File:Midsummer Pole at Seurasaari.jpg, A Midsummer pole based on examples found at

Eckerö Eckerö is a municipality of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Swedish an ...

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

References

External links

The Seurasaari Open-Air Museum

The Seurasaari Foundation
Meilahti Islands of Helsinki Museums in Helsinki Open-air museums in Finland Folk museums in Europe Geography of Helsinki Islands of Uusimaa {{SouthernFinland-geo-stub

Gallery

See also

References

External links