Ankkapurha Industrial Museum

This industrial museum occupies a huge complex of red-brick buildings that cross to an island over rapids on the river Kymijoki. It was built as a mill for manufacturing cardboard in 1872. It became a museum in 1997. The most important exhibit is the original continuous board mill, the first in Finland, which was made by Heinrich Füllner in Lower Silesia and continued in operation until 1978. The machine is 60m long and produced 6,000 tons of board a year. Visitors also see the hydroelectric plant completed in the 1920s with its original turbines. The museum highlights the stories of nine individual people who worked at the plant. Models, photographs and artefacts explain the construction of the factory and the chain of production. Blacksmiths demonstrate how tools and equipment were made. Nearby, workers’ apartments at Reunalinja 7 have been furnished to show living conditions at different periods and the mill’s technical drawing office is displayed at Pasilantie 1.