From Granary to Museum

The oldest existing building in the Aittaluoto industrial area in Pori is a state granary from 1860s. This atmospheric brick building, right next to an industrial park but only one kilometre from the Pori Market Square, today encases the Rosenlew Museum.   

The state granary was designed by the provincial architect G. T. Chiewitz, a productive and well-known designer from the mid-1800s, whose handprints are seen not only in Pori but in the city plans and buildings of many Finnish towns.   

Deep within the building lies even today one of the strongest air-raid shelters in Pori, built for the factory workers during interim peace in 1941. The state granary has also served as a paper mill warehouse and the Rosenlew Company garage.  

The museal history of the building began in 1984, when the company-founded museum consisting of the collections of highly recognised Olavi Koskinen was opened in the then still unheated facilities of the state granary.  

The later owner of the building, the UPM group, sold it to the City of Pori for a price of one euro in 2003. In this transaction the protected building and the collections was transferred under the care of Satakunta Museum, which secured the preservation of both the building and the collections. 

The Rosenlew Museum was thoroughly refurbished for museum use within a EU-funded project, in co-operation with the University of Turku and the local culture fund, Svenska Kulturfonden i Björneborg. The inauguration of the present-day museum was celebrated in 2006.