Luostarinmaki Handicrafts Museum

A fire destroyed most of Turku in 1827, and the one district that survived was Luostarinmaki, a quarter of low wooden houses and yards on a hillside occupied by craftsmen and the poor. It was made a museum in 1940 and, unusually, it was not moved: the buildings stand where they were built, with their yards, fences, outhouses and stoves, and the rooms have been fitted out as around thirty workshops of the trades that were carried on there, printers, cobblers, watchmakers, potters, tobacco makers and others. In summer craftspeople work in some of them. The scale is domestic and cramped, which is the point.

Highlights

• Buildings preserved in place - the only quarter to survive the 1827 fire.
• Around thirty fitted workshops - printers, cobblers, potters and more.
• Yards, fences and outhouses - the domestic setting kept intact.
• Craftspeople working in summer - demonstrations in the original rooms.

When to go

May to September, when the museum is fully open and demonstrations run; winter opening is limited. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays.

Practical notes

It closes or reduces heavily outside summer. Rooms are small and cramped, and the site is difficult for wheelchairs on cobbles and thresholds. Demonstrations depend on which craftspeople are present that day.

Nearby

Turku cathedral is north; the river and castle lie west.

Key facts