Building heritage museum, Pori, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Building Heritage Museum Toivo is a small museum at Varvinkatu 19 in Pori, Finland, devoted to the history of the building itself and the people who lived and worked in it. It is part of the Satakunta Museum, and it shows everyday city life through one address rather than through grand monuments.

The story behind it

The first residents moved into the building around 1820. Over the years it was home to a carpenter, a police officer, a sailor and an engineer, so it holds the stories of ordinary working people in Pori.

The walls have also housed a car shop, a barber shop, a lemonade factory and a milk store. During the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939-1940, a bomb fell into the yard and destroyed the public sauna that once stood there. Today Toivo is run as part of the Satakunta Museum.

What to look for

• Look at how the rooms are arranged and furnished, which gives a sense of how the residents lived day to day.
• Notice the traces of the building's many uses, from workshop and shop to lemonade factory and milk store.
• Step into or look at the yard and picture the public sauna that stood there until the bomb of the Winter War destroyed it.
• Read the information about the former residents, such as the sailor, the carpenter and the police officer, and imagine them coming and going from the same door.

Tips for your visit

• Plan a short visit, enough to look around and read the stories. It fits easily between other stops in the centre.
• Opening days and admission rules can change, so check current opening hours and entry details with the Satakunta Museum before you go.
• Daylight is best if you want to see the yard and the outside of the building properly.
• The museum sits among the streets of central Pori, so combine it with a walk around the neighbourhood rather than a single stop.

See it on a quest

The museum is a stop on Bear hunt in Pori, a self-guided quest through the city played on your phone. You walk to Toivo as one place on a longer route, the app tells you about it when you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no group to join.