Museum destinations and permanent exhibitions

The K.H.Renlund Museum consists of the Roos House, Exhibition Hall, Lassander House and Pedagogy, which are located in the Museum Quarter; the home of Fredrik and Anna Drake found in the old town of Kokkola, and the English boathouse and landing craft in the ‘English Park’. Museum destinations found outside of the city center are Seal Hunting Museum on Tankar, Öja Fishing Museum and Lohtaja Heritage Museum. 

Christmas opening hours

Closed: 23.-26.12

Open: 27.-28.12 11-16

Open: 30.12 11-16 & 31.12 11-14

Closed: 1.1.2026

Closed 6.1.2026

Roos House

Pitkänsillankatu 39, Kokkola

The Roos House is a combination of art and the history of Kokkola. The exhibition on display on the top floor of the Roos House includes pieces from the Finnish golden age and they are part of the art collection bequeathed by Renlund. The collection includes pieces from artists such as Beda Stjernschantz, Magnus Enckell, Albert Edelfelt, Pekka Halonen, Viktor Westerholm and Elin Danielson-Gambogi. In addition to the impressive art collection the exhibition also gives a glimpse into the 1900th century Kokkola, and displays the life of the Roos family and the history of Mr. K. H. Renlund. The first floor of the Roos House is reserved for temporary exhibitions as well as the Museum Shop that specializes in local products. This unique camera collection of photographer Leo Torppa housed in the salt storehouse next to the Roos House is closed to the public at the moment.

Merchant Anders Roos built the Roos House in 1813. The building’s architecture is influenced by neoclassicism and rococo. The top floor was a banquet room and reception room where e.g. Emperor Alexander I of Russia was greeted when he visited Kokkola in 1819. The first floor was used for informal use. It offered premises for Anders Roos shop and a home for the Roos family’s ten children.

The Roos family were wealthy merchants and ship-owners. In 1800, Anders Roos was Finland’s richest man based on the wealth tax. During his lifetime Kokkola was among the Finland’s leading tar trading and seafaring towns.

Exhibition Hall

Museum Quarter, Pitkänsillankatu 28

The Exhibition Hall is a space dedicated to temporary exhibitions located in the Museum Quarter. The Exhibition Hall focuses on contemporary art, international outsider art and Finnish ITE art. In addition, events are held in the space in connection to exhibitions. The building itself was finished in 1818 and used a residence for the teachers of the Pedagogy.

Lassander House

Museum Quarter, Pitkänsillankatu 28. 

The Lassander House is furnished as an 18th-century merchant family home. It was the home of e.g. the merchant families Lassander and Ahl. The Lassander House was originally built on Kustaa Adolfin katu in 1748, and was later moved to the Mseum Quarter. The Lassander House also gives insight to the trade and seafaring history of Kokkola.

The Exhibition Hall staff will open the doors to the Lassander House. 

Pedagogy

Museum Quarter, Pitkänsillankatu 28 

The unique Pedagogy is one of the most famous landmarks in Kokkola. It was built as a schoolhouse in 1696, and it is probably the oldest secular urban wooden building in Finland. The Pedagogy has been a part of the K. H. Renlund Museum since 1909.

Home of Fredrik and Anna Drake

Läntinen Kirkkokatu 20

The home of Fredrik and Anna Drake, built in 1835, is a historic house museum where four generations of the artisan family Drake have lived. Its contents include items spanning from the late 18th century to the end of the 20th century, including artworks, handicrafts and a library with over 3,000 books. In 1997, siblings Helmer and Märta Drake bequeathed their home and its contents to the City of Kokkola under the condition that the house would remain intact and it would be named after their parents and called the Home of Fredrik and Anna Drake.

Tolvmansgården Hakalax

Kaarlelankatu 47

Tolvmansgården in Hakalax will open to the public for the first time in summer 2025. This Ostrobothnian-style building, completed in the early 1800s, was last inhabited by Göta and Bertil Hakalax—passionate collectors with a keen interest in artifacts from Kokkola and its surrounding areas. They wished to leave their home and its contents for the townspeople to admire. A special feature is a room dedicated to the trotting champion stallion Amor, a double titleholder.

Tolvmansgården Hakalax is open by appointment.

Paddle Box Boat

Englanninpuisto (‘the English Park’), Isokatu 50 

One of the landing vessels of the British navy, caught during the Skirmish of Halkokari in 1854, is on display in the boat house. The Skirmish of Halkokari was an event connceted with the British Naval operations in the Gulf of Bothnia as well as the Crimean War 1853 – 1856. The locals’ ambush succeeded in the short battle fought against the British Navy in the Vanhansatamanlahti bay and they took the landing vessel as a trophy.  The boat was part of the British paddlewheel steam frigate HMS Vulture and is known as a paddle box boat. The boathouse was built as a showroom with donated funds and building was finished in 1896.

The paddle box boat can be seen behind a glass wall.

Öja Fishing Museum

Öjantie 460.

The shoreline of the Öja Fishing Museum in Långö village in Gäddviken has been a public marina already in the olden days. There has also been boathouses on the site.  The Fishing Museum is comprised of a fisherman’s cottage, boatsheds, smoke sauna, fyke/fish-trap and salt storage sheds, and a woodshed. The cottage was moved to its current location from an estate called Krokvik on the opposite side of the bay, where you can now see a small fishermen’s village. The cottage, known as Alina’s cottage, was originally built by Mats Matsson Häggblom. The cottage consists of a vestibule, a main room and a small bedroom. The furnishings have mainly belonged to the last person who lived in the cottage, Alina Häggblom, who moved out in 1964. Alina’s cottage contains fishing-related items collected from Öja. The museum is open during the summer.

Tankar Seal Hunting Museum

Island of Tankar, access by MS Jenny. 

The Seal Hunting Museum is a small and idyllic museum destination located on the lighthouse island of Tankar. Since the Stone Age, seal hunting was a significant source of livelihood in the coastal regions of Finland. This occupation was also practiced in Kokkola, and the first signs of seal hunting in the Tankar area are from the 1330s. The seal hunting museum has an extensive collection of objects related to seal hunting and a seal hunting boat. The museum is only open during the summer.

Lohtaja Heritage Museum

Punasillantie, 68230 Lohtaja. 

The main building of the heritage museum was originally located on the Luoma farm in Toholampi, and it was purchased in 1860 to serve as a farmhand’s cottage for the Lohtaja chaplain. In 1953, the Lohtaja parish sold the cottage to the local heritage association of Lohtaja to be used as a museum. In addition to the main building, the cottage surroundings include a soldier’s cottage, a windmill, an iron furnace, a warehouse and what is believed to be the oldest timbered barn in Central Ostrobothnia, dating back to 1698. The Lohtaja Heritage Museum has an abundant and versatile collection of over two thousand objects, including many specialties such as a donation chest, shackles and an angel-themed wooden board from the old Lohtaja church.

Open:
In summertime