Industrial Workers' Housing Museum

In the late 1800s, industry that took its motive power from Vuoksi's rapids began to emerge in the Imatra region. Large-scale industry began to form when the joint-stock company Tornator started building industrial plants in 1895 after buying a farm on the banks of Vuoksi, which included half of the shore areas of Niskakoski and Tainionkoski. Tainionkoski's transformation into an industrial town began.

In 1896 and in the following years, the company built approximately 20 residential buildings, which included several apartments, as housing for the workers. This is how e.g. The residential area of Ritikanranta, whose residential buildings were called barracks. The apartments intended as family apartments in the barracks included a room, a kitchen and a pantry, with the entire apartment area being 20-25m2.

The company also built a sauna and a laundry room, which also had a mantel, and a bakery for the residents to use together. Nearby was a shop and later a post office, as well as a public school maintained by the company. The residential area was complemented by a market established in 1904.

The fire department building built by the company had the opportunity for leisure activities. Many cultural activities started there, such as a drama club, a horn band and a sports club. Later, films were also shown in the house.

Enso-Gutzeit Oy, into which Tornator merged in 1932, donated the area between Ritika beach road and Vuoksi to the city of Imatra as a museum area in the fall of 1972. In this area, the two remaining buildings were restored as the Industrial Workers' Housing Museum, which was completed and opened to the public in early May 1975.

The apartments in the residential building of the Industrial Housing Museum represent the living styles of different decades from the beginning of the 1900th century to the 1960s. The cabin sauna building, partly built of block stone, has been changed to its original appearance.

Most of the objects in the Industrial Workers' Housing Museum have been donated by the residents of the Tainionkoski area. In this way, it has been possible to preserve the material culture related to the everyday life and living of industrial workers from the end of the 1800th century until the middle of the 1900th century.

Admission to the museum is free.