Pentala Archipelago Museum – Archipelago Full Of History And Nature
The Pentala Archipelago Museum is located on an old fisherman’s estate on Pentala Island in Espoonlahti Bay. The museum area consists of fifteen different buildings. The oldest one is a fisherman’s cottage built in the early 1790s. The fisherman’s estate was inhabited year-round until 1986.
Espoo’s maritime side is at its best on Pentala Island. The Archipelago Museum showcases life in the archipelago, from housing and hard work to villas and leisure activities. In the summer, the museum area is full of things to see and do. If you want to experience Espoo’s unique archipelago nature, simply follow a nature trail to Lake Pentalanjärvi and the Diksand beach.
The Pentala Archipelago Museum is one of the five museums of the Espoo City Museum. We will open on 16 June 2018.
Info
OPENING HOURS
The Pentala Archipelago Museum is open every day from 16 June to 2 September at 10 am–5 pm.
GETTING HERE
There are two ways to get to Pentala Island. You can use the scheduled boats of the City of Espoo, or arrive by your own boat. We recommend taking a scheduled boat, as the number of berths on the pier is limited.
NATURE
The majority of Espoo’s outdoor recreation area on Pentala Island is classified as a nature conservation area. The seashore is only accessible from the museum area and the Diksand beach. Please respect the fragile island environment!
Get to know the island’s nature on the page Nature.
TOILETS AND ACCESSIBILITY
The toilets, a toilet for the disabled and a child care room in the museum area are open during the museum’s opening hours. There are no other public toilets on the island. The museum area is an old fisherman’s estate and only partially accessible for persons with reduced mobility. Villa Rosengård and Lilla Villan are accessible by a ramp. There are some high doorsteps in the museum area. Gurli’s house is unfortunately not accessible for persons with reduced mobility, as the house contains stairs and small spaces.
EATING ON PENTALA ISLAND
You are free to bring your own snacks to Pentala island, enjoy the delicacies served by Cafe Lillstugan in the museum area, or have lunch in the Paven archipelago restaurant. If you bring your own meal, you can eat in the museum’s breakroom Lilla Villan, or in the great outdoors as long as you leave nothing behind.
PENTALA ISLAND
BUILDINGS IN THE MUSEUM AREA
With its fisherman’s and villa buildings, the Nyholm fisherman’s estate is particularly well-suited to presenting the full spectrum of life in the archipelago. The museum provides a diverse account of both everyday life and holiday time in the archipelago.
The Pentala Archipelago Museum will be opened in phases over the next few years. The buildings opened in 2018 will be complemented in 2019 by a fishing-themed exhibition in the shore building.
NATURE AND HIKING
Located in Espoo’s Suvisaaristo district, the 130-hectare Pentala is the highest island in Southern Finland. The island’s nature is particularly diverse, and approximately half of Pentala is a nature conservation area. Lake Pentalanjärvi in the middle of the island has rugged and steep shores. The island has a rich variety of animal life – you may for example glimpse a deer or a great spotted woodpecker in the diverse forest. Several rare plants grow on the naturally beautiful Diksand beach.
THE ARCHIPELAGO MUSEUM PROJECT
The Pentala Archipelago Museum is a multisensory museum familiarising visitors with the archipelago way of life on nature’s terms. A special focus will be on life on the terms of the archipelago nature and on leisure time in the archipelago in the past and today.
ON DISPLAY
Pentala Archipelago Museum
People started living in the fisherman’s estate on the northeastern tip of Pentala Island in the 1750s. There are about 15 buildings in the Archipelago Museum area. The oldest one dates back to the 1790s, the newest one to the mid-1900s. When the buildings were repaired, as much of the original structures were preserved as possible.
On the fisherman’s estate with its red-ochre walls, the atmosphere of the archipelago is almost tangible. Sheep graze on the former estate’s premises. The Archipelago Museum offers a versatile daily programme, such as guided tours, demonstrations and workshops. Various communities and associations also showcase their knowledge and skills in the museum area. Our special events can be found in our event calendar.
Entrance to the museum area and the nature trail of Pentala Island is free of charge.
Gurli’s house
Fisherman Arvid Nyholm lived on Pentala Island. He courted the young Gurli Lönnberg and built a home for them to live in. Gurli and Arvid got married just before Christmas 1929. After his death in 1972, Gurli lived in the house for the rest of her life. Gurli Nyholm, the last year-round resident on Pentala Island, died in 1987.
Gurli’s house has now been restored to look exactly like it did in her final years. The Nyholms’ furniture has been brought back, not forgetting some items that Gurli herself held dear in her old age, such as her radio, devotional books and photographs. It is as if she never left – maybe she just popped out to do some gardening?
The museum offers guided tours to Gurli’s house every day at set times. Visitors can only enter the house with a guide. Each tour takes about 30 minutes. As the house is somewhat of a maze and full of items, it is necessary to limit group sizes to 12 persons.
Entrance fee to Gurli’s house: EUR 7 / EUR 5 for persons entitled to a discount, free for persons under 18 years of age. Free entry for Museum Card holders.
You can also book a private guided tour for your group at a suitable time. The group has no minimum size. The private tour costs EUR 40 per group plus the entrance fee for each person. Its duration is 60 minutes.
Private guided tours are available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
Museum Without Walls – mobile guide to Pentala
You can get to know Pentala Island on your mobile phone or tablet by using our mobile guide, Museum Without Walls. The Pentala mobile guide is a great way to dive deeper into the island’s history. You can read about a certain spot or peruse the entire island. Families can also use the mobile guide while taking the Summer Adventure independent tour on Pentala Island.
You can access the guide on a web browser on your mobile phone or tablet, using a mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. You can also use a computer to browse the guide as an online exhibition.
The mobile guide will be available on 16 June 2018.
Pentala Island nature trail
A nature trail takes visitors to the heart of the unique natural environment of Pentala Island, leading from the fisherman’s estate to Lake Pentalanjärvi and the picturesque Diksand beach. Follow the trail to experience Espoo’s versatile archipelago nature.
The trail begins from the museum area. It is unfortunately not accessible for persons with reduced mobility, or prams. The 2.3-kilometre nature trail has been built by the Environment Department of the City of Espoo.
Services
GUIDED TOURS
The Pentala Archipelago Museum offers free guided tours and short information sessions on several days of the week. Find out more in our event calendar! You can also use the Pentala Island mobile guide or take your children on the independent Summer Adventure tour. The fee for an outdoor tour is EUR 40/group. The fee for a tour of Gurli’s house is EUR 40/group + the entrance fees to the house. The guided tours are free for school groups. The maximum size of a group is 24 persons. We provide audio guides to the groups. The devices ensure that the guide’s words are easy to hear in the outdoor environment.
GUIDED TOUR PACKAGES
Would you like to tailor a full-day programme on Pentala Island for your group or meeting guests? We also have a meeting room available. Why not start with the Life by the sea tour in the museum area, followed by some delicious soup for lunch and a boat ride back – or our Prohibition Act tour and a cup of “hard tea” for the whole group!
Build your ideal day from the options below and give us a call! We will schedule a suitable day for you. Read more about the guided tours on Guided tours page or contact us.
CAFE AND RESTAURANTSERVICES
You are free to bring your own snacks to Pentala island, enjoy the delicacies served by Cafe Lillstugan in the museum area, or have lunch in the Paven archipelago restaurant. If you bring your own meal, you can eat in the museum’s breakroom Lilla Villan, or in the great outdoors as long as you leave nothing behind.
Please think about the environment and bring as little rubbish to the island as possible. The nature trail is not equipped with rubbish bins.
MEETING PREMISES IN VILLA ROSENGÅRD
Hold your meeting in an old, atmospheric villa! Villa Rosengård is the main building of the Pentala Archipelago Museum. Its upstairs chambers are available for small meetings (for up to 10 persons).
MUSEUM SHOP
The museum shop is in Villa Rosengård where the information desk of the Pentala Archipelago Museum is also located. The shop carries interesting literature, products with a maritime feel, postcards and sweets.
