The best museums Turku

Craft Museum or Luostarinmäki. In 1827, the town was almost completely destroyed by fire with 2,500 houses going up in smoke. Only a modest craftsmen's quarter on the Luostarinmäki hill was spared, which has since been converted into an open-air museum and has been a national heritage site since 1940. More than 30 workshops with their signs, furniture and tools are perfectly preserved there. The whole village offers a vivid picture of the customs and shops of the 18th and 19th centuries. In summer, folk dances and concerts.

Aboa Vetus (literally "Old Turku" in Swedish) is an ingenious and relevant portrayal of a medieval district. Renovation work in the early 1990s uncovered period streets and the foundations of medieval houses. A successful reconstruction that plunges us into the everyday world of the inhabitants. Opened in 1995, the museum is still evolving as excavations continue. The Ars Nova focuses on contemporary art.

In a bourgeois house built in 1700, a pharmacy preserved in its original state was set up in part of the building in the 19th century with two period laboratories. It is the oldest pharmacy in Finland and well worth a visit. At the same place, there is also the Qwensel House Museum. In it you can follow the history of the family of Joseph Pipping, a professor of medicine who lived in the building in the 18th century.

The desire of Consul Alfred Jacobsson and his wife Hélène to preserve their home in its original state to illustrate the life of the upper classes in Turku a century ago led to the creation of the very special Ett Hem Museum. One will appreciate the refined and original painted wooden furniture, typical of the region. The museum's collection also includes books by artists and sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as objects typical of the bourgeois interiors of the time.

One of the liveliest museums in Turku. It houses more than 700 instruments (16th-20th centuries), including some rare pieces and important archives of the great composer Sibelius, who has a whole section devoted to his work. The aim of the museum is to bring to life the history of Finnish music from the 18th century to the present day. For music lovers, this is the most comprehensive museum in the country! The advantages: concerts are given in a room with acoustics that are necessarily excellent for such a place (tickets from 4 € to 8 €).

An imposing building in the purest Art Nouveau style (1904) stands high above Vartiovuori Park. The first floor is devoted to temporary exhibitions featuring Finnish artists. Upstairs, it's more classical, with collections representing Finland's golden age in the ^19th and ^20th centuries, with works by Aleksis Gallèn-Kallela, Hugo Simberg, Wainö Aaltonen, and more contemporary artists such as Ellen Thesleff and Helena Schjerfbeck...

Built below the large 1861 Samppalinna windmill (one of Turku's most typical sights) and surrounded by greenery. A modern white stone building presenting a panorama of various trends in contemporary painting and architecture. The national figure of sculptor Aaltonen (1894-1966) dominates the ensemble. In particular, he celebrated in stone the patriots and heroes of the young, independent Finland (see the statue of the national sportsman, Paavo Nurmi, in Helsinki or The Wooden Floaters in Tampere).