Know your cultural heritage

The mission of Varkaus Museum Center Konsti is to maintain, manage and make available to the public cultural heritage information and related materials, and to provide content-based research and services. In addition to storing collections, the museums also maintain and share information about cultural environments.

Varkaus Museum Center Konsti has extensive archival, art and artefact collections. The collections of the Konsti Museum Center mainly include artefacts, photographs and archival material relating to the history of Varkaus industry, the Varkaus trading sector and the city of Varkaus. On these pages you can explore the museum collections, as well as the built cultural environments of Varkaus.

The content of the Varkaus Museum Center Konsti is also easily accessible from the comfort of your couch. Interested in old photographs, for example? Check out the digitised content of the museum at piipunjuurella.finna.fi. Or shipbuilding history? Then go to laivadata.fi

Varkaus' history is also visible in the city's streets and built environments. Through a variety of mobile routes, you can learn more about the history around us.

The Mobile Routes is a mobile app shared by Finnish museums, with guides that work on all smartphones and tablets without a separate app. The following guides have been published about Varkaus:

Wanderings in Old Varkaus is an experience tour that brings the stories to life. You can walk the route in the order you want with the help of information panels and a paper map. You can find the map at the Varkaus Museum Centre Konst and at tourist information centres in the area.

For the best experience, view the augmented reality stories on your mobile device from the information boards or on the paper map from behind the QR code. In addition to the images and text on the map and signs, the QR codes will reveal animated videos, 3D modelling and audio narration. Through the content, you can meet Walter Ahlström, the founder of the city of Varkaus, and see the Varkaus sawmill designed by Alvar Aalto, now demolished.

The tour is available in Finnish and English and can be visited all year round.

The map-based routes built into the Story Player service run in a web browser, without the need for a separate app. They work best on your mobile device on the spot. Check out the mobile routes at tarinasoitin.fi/stealing. A large number of mobile routes also have a paper map.