Portaan Leather Workshop

The museum is a remarkably complete two-storey leather factory in the village of Porras, in the countryside around 100 km north-west of Helsinki. It was started in the 1870s and operated for nearly a century until it closed in 1971. It was left unaltered until restoration began in 2005. The factory tanned and prepared skins on the ground floor and finished the leather and made leather products on the floor above. Power was provided by a Vulcan steam engine made in Turku in 1910. The contents of the workshops are complete from their working days. Six hundred items documented and still in their original positions include the tanning ponds, leather preparation machines, hand-tools for shoe and saddle makers, account books and records, and objects made in the factory such as horse-harnesses and boots. The museum also offers overnight accommodation in the former workers’ houses and has a restaurant.