Sarka – The Finnish Museum of Agriculture

The museum occupies a group of impressive buildings in countryside of fields and woodland in south-west Finland, built between 2005 and 2019. It explores the history of agriculture in Finland across 3,000 years. The main permanent exhibition is about developments in agriculture before the widespread use of machines. It incorporates the collections of the former agricultural museum of the University of Helsinki. Videos, images, models, tools, storage containers and other artefacts present the stages of arable farming from clearing the landscape for agriculture to ploughing and harvesting, the work of animal husbandry, life in the farmhouse and connected employment in hunting, fishing, forestry and crafts. The later story of the development of machinery in agriculture is shown through a collection of tractors, steam engines, threshing machines, ploughs and other mechanised equipment. Several historical buildings have been rebuilt on the site: eight traditional log-barns from different regions of the country and a 150-year-old village barn from Mellilä.