The Front Museum, Hanko

...take a chance. Strictly speaking the Front Musuem in Lappohja in Southern Finland should have been closed for the winter when we visited the area in September 2007; in fact mid-September onwards is very much seen as the "off season" for most attractions in Finland, other than those in the heart of the cities (and even some of these close down for several months too).

However, our Lonely Planet had been wrong before so we ...
...of Hanko. The tourist officer contacted the curator of the museum and arranged an appointment for us to visit the Front Museum later that day. She even checked the train times for us to make sure we could arrive for the time we had arranged. Now that's service!

The Museum is situated on Road 25 which runs between the towns of Karjaa (Swedish name - Karis ) and Hanko (Swedish name - Hango, the most southerly in Finland). There is some ... more

Sometimes it pays to take a chance. Strictly speaking the Front Musuem in Lappohja in Southern Finland should have been closed for the winter when we visited the area in September 2007; in fact mid-September onwards is very much seen as the "off season" for most attractions in Finland, other than those in the heart of the cities (and even some of these close down for several months too).

However, our Lonely Planet had been wrong before so we enquired at the tourist information office in the nearby town of Hanko. The tourist officer contacted the curator of the museum and arranged an appointment for us to visit the Front Museum later that day. She even checked the train times for us to make sure we could arrive for the time we had arranged. Now that's service!

The Museum is situated on Road 25 which runs between the towns of Karjaa (Swedish name - Karis ) and Hanko (Swedish name - Hango, the most southerly in Finland). There is some parking here and across the highway towards Hanko there is small service station where parking may also be possible.

Coming by public transport is fairly easy; whether coming from Karjaa or Hanko simply get off the train at Lappohja, exit the station and turn left. You'll see the Museum hiding in the trees across the road about a hundred metres from the station. It's best to cross the road as soon as you come out of the station because a small ditch runs along the side of the road and is quite difficult to negotiate further down. A bus service between Hanko and Karjaa runs along this road too and, at certain times of day, there are no trains and only buses. If you buy your tickets in advance, be sure to check whether you are being sold tickets for the train or bus because they are interchangeable.

The Front Museum is situated right on the battle lines that were in effect in the summer of 1941. It's a heavily wooded area (well it's Finland isn't it!)and the museum is in a wooden cabin with all kinds of odd additions which show how it has evolved over the years. Walking from the road to the building you pass several exhibits like guns and rocket casings and reconstructions of trench fortifications. You might be forgiven for thinking, as you drive past, that it's a paint-balling centre because of its setting among the trees.

As you enter the building there is a reception area with wooden tables and a counter. It was here that the curator explained to us the reason behind the museum and why the museum is like it is today. This gentleman was certainly quite a character! At first he talked very slowly, drinking copious amounts of coffee (as most Finns do); he apologised for his lethargy claiming a "major naval engagement" the night before was the reason for his tiredness, this he later explained was a euphemism for being as "pi**ed as a newt".

He explained that the museum was created (and built) by him and his father (a veteran of the war in Finland) and that, in order to have full control of the way the museum is presented - and the line of history they put forward - they are fully independent, accepting no grants from the government or other bodies towards the running of the museum. Instead, these dedicated men have amasses an amazing collection of items pertaining not only to Finland's part in World War Two but, to a lesser extent, the country's long road to independence and it's future as a member of the European Union.

He gave us a potted history of why there exists a Front Museum at all.

Finland was invaded by its neighbour, the Soviet Union in November 1939. Finland had a small population and although she struggled valiantly, there was no way she could overcome the mighty Soviets and a peace treaty was signed in Moscow in March 1940. As one of the conditions, it was agreed that Finland would lease the Hanko headland and the sea territory around it to the Soviet union for the next thirty years. This would also allow the Soviet union the right to create a military base in the area in order to defend the Gulf of Finland.
Finnish people living in the area packed up and fled but Finnish troops stationed themselves on the borders of this zone and built fortifications. Then, in June 1941, Finland was again at war with the Soviet Union. Over the next months a futile series of battles over the outlying islands saw plenty of bloodshed without much point as desolate islands kept changing hands. Futile as it appeared, the Finns managed to keep up the pressure and by October, the Russians had evacuated their Hanko base but not before they had wreaked destruction upon the town, keen to make sure they left nothing behind that could be of use to their enemy. By December Finnish troops were once more in Hanko and early the following spring, the people of Hanko stated to return to rebuild their town.

While the Curator and his father are obviously military men, they have not forgotten to cover the more social aspects of the war. There is an interesting section at the beginning of the route around the museum that shows touching photographs of children being evacuated to Sweden, much in the same way that British children were evacuated from the towns to the countryside. I never fail to be moved by seeing these pictures of small children wearing labels as if they were a parcel, a cardboard box containing a gas mask over one shoulder. And like with the evacuation of many British children, the curator told us that the whole affair was often not in the best interests of the children and many suffered greatly because of the experience.

As we went round the museum, with the curator explaining the exhibits which are captioned only in Finnish and Swedish (except one small section in the annex that houses the more military exhibits), another collection of items which caught my eye were items carved in wood by soldiers stationed on the front; intricate bowls, items of jewellery for wives or girlfriends back home, even an astounding lamp base, all done to keep active and to break the boredom of waiting and waiting.

The exhibits are well presented but its obvious that everything has been improvised and money saved wherever possible. As a result uniforms are displayed on what is a comical set of all kinds of mannequins from various places. Some are conventional shop "dummies", some have limbs missing or unlikely wigs, some have no faces while others have the most bizarre make up. Still, it's impressive that this collection of military and auxiliary uniforms have been acquired at all. I should imagine that many of the items displayed here would be much sought after by war historians and other museums and might cost large sums of money to get hold of. The curator and his father have used their contacts and their own military backgrounds to create a position for themselves where people are willing to make donations of such items free of charge to the museum.

One such item is an enormous map of the region that has been annotated by officers to show battle plans and fortifications and is, apparently, quite a find because it refutes what had been the supposed military plans during the war. It was donated by another elderly veteran and there are some photographs of him visiting the museum to see his donation exhibited.

Of less interest to me with the section with bits of aircraft, charts of air capability and guns. It's not really something I've ever been interested in but my partner was interested and was able to chat with the curator about some of the exhibits. It was all a bit too "Boys Own" for me.

The final part of the exhibition in this main building was a short section on Finland's history from early times, with the Vikings, right through to the modern era and a display on Finland's membership of the European Union - not something the curator was in favour of and he made no apologies for his stance. This was done through copies of old paintings which should scenes not only of domestic life but how the cities looked at different periods and through a collection of of outfits - civilian and military from each period. This was another section I would have appreciated seeing with English captions, not least because it was clear the curator was less interested himself in this section, preferring to focus more on the World War Two exhibits.

Overall I thought this was a fantastic place to visit. It is amazing to see the work of just two men and how they have acquired such a vast collection of exhibits. We were lucky to have been able to get what was really a private viewing, especially given that we would have been able to understand very few of the captions.

There were downsides, though. It was freezing inside the museum - remember this is housed in what is essentially a wooden hut and we were there for several hours. If you visit outside of the height of summer you should be prepared for this. We thought it was warmer outside.

Also, the curator spoke good English though quite heavily accented and so you had to listen very hard which became quite wearing after a while. This does sound like a whinge but when you are there for a couple of hours it can start to become distracting. On a positive note, he did ask us what we knew about the war in Finland before we started and never assumed we knew things before he started talking about them. It was hard, though, to get him to engage on things he wanted to skirt, and to stop him from enthusing about things which didn't much interest us. He managed to wax lyrical on things like air capabilities of various European nations for some ten minutes!

Although our information mentioned admission charges (4 Euro was quoted for adults), we were not asked to pay at any point but we did say we would like to make a donation as we left which was quite awkward as weren't entirely sure what was appropriate and the curator was obviously trying to be quite gracious in accepting. I imagine that if you visit during normal opening hours in the summer, you will pay the standard admission charge. We paid more than the advertised charge because the curator had gone out of his way to open up and prepare coffee for our arrival, as well as ably escorting us around his museum.

PRACTICAL STUFF

Open May - early September (check beforehand for exact dates) 11.30 - 18.30 daily. At other times phone to see whether it is possible to arrange a visit

Tel +358 (0) 19 244 3068

Mobile - +358 (0) 414 801 237

Wheelchairs users will find they should be able to negotiate the main building and annex without problems, ramps link the adjoining rooms.

There are toilets but since they were not unlocked for our visit I am unable to say of they are suitable for wheelchair users. However, a small service station across the road does have good facilities.

In summer, limited refreshments are available and you can eat and drink inside or out. The service station across the road also serves food and has a comfortable and cosy seating area. 

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