Salpa Line Museum

Salpalinja-museo
The Salpa Line Museum
Музей линии "Салпа"
Established 1987
Location Säästöpirtintie 70, FI-49700 MIEHIKKÄLÄ, Finland
60°39.043′N 27°41.566′E / 60.650717°N 27.692767°E[1]Coordinates: 60°39.043′N 27°41.566′E / 60.650717°N 27.692767°E[2]
Type a military historical museum related the engineer corps of Finland and the Continuation War.
Visitors 5 000 annually
Director Anu Haapala, director of the museums of the Miehikkala municipality (Miehikkälän museot)
Website http://www.salpakeskus.fi/index.php?l=1&path=1,0,0
languages of correspondence: English and Finnish
eila.manninen (a) miehikkala.fi

The Salpa Line Museum (in Finnish: Salpalinja-museo in Russian: Музей линии "Салпа") is established and opened in 1987 by the Miehikkälä municipality and the second world war veteran organisations. It is the first museum established belonging to the museums of Miehikkälä. The other museum is Miehikkälän kotiseutumuseo, The Miehikkala local arts-and-crafts museum, which was established in 1989 and is in the same building as the Engineers Museum.[3] The Salpa Line Museum is the core of the Salpa Centre. It is both the tourist information centre of the Salpa Line Museum, the Engineer Museum and the Bunker Museum and the Salpa Line Museum centre itself.

The museal area was built as a defence line and the defence centre of a one infantry company in 1940-1944. It was never used for the defence as the front line never reached the area due to the truce of 5 September 1944 and the Moscow Armistice of 19 September 1944.

Some of the preserved Salpa Line areas are classified by Finland's National Board of Antiquities [4] to the Built-up cultural environments of national importance1 (Valtakunnallisesti merkittävät rakennetut kulttuuriympäristöt – Byggda kulturmiljöer av riksintresse1). The territory of the Salpa Line Museum belongs to the one of the four such areas in Miehikkälä: Kylmälä,[5] Miehikkälä municipal cente,[6] Muurula [7] and Myllylampi.[8]

Exhibits

Due to the nature of the museum most of the collections are outside in the woods. There are some of the bunkers left. Outside the museum centre building there are anti-tank guns.

Object # Military use WGS 84 Description
321 anti-tank dogout, machine gun shooting and accommodation for a half infantry platoon, for 20 soldiers
322 accommodation dogout for a platoon, for 40 soldiers   economy model
385 artillery observation dogout accommodation for 20 soldiers  
327 accommodation dogout for 20 soldiers  
326 machine gun dogout and accommodation for 20 soldiers
360 anti-tank gun position with a 7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40[9]   an open restored 75 mm anti-tank gun nest

Gallery

  1. ^ http://tuomovirtanen.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Linnat+ja+linnoitukset/salpalinja-museo+miehikk%E4l%E4+tv20090523_006.jpg/web

Open hours

Month Weekday Hours
May Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 10-18
June Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 10-18
July Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 10-18
August Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 10-18
September Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 10-18 [10]

References

  1. ↑ http://maps.navici.com/112/?lang=en
  2. ↑ http://maps.navici.com/112/?lang=en
  3. ↑ http://www.miehikkala.fi/index.php?&id=996&mid=6&aid=2625&bid=2629
  4. ↑ http://www.nba.fi/en/index
  5. ↑ http://www.rky.fi/read/asp/r_kohde_kartta.aspx?KOHDE_ID=2021&OBJECTID=24716
  6. ↑ http://www.rky.fi/read/asp/r_kohde_kartta.aspx?KOHDE_ID=2021&OBJECTID=25112
  7. ↑ http://www.rky.fi/read/asp/r_kohde_kartta.aspx?KOHDE_ID=2021&OBJECTID=25113
  8. ↑ http://www.rky.fi/read/asp/r_kohde_kartta.aspx?KOHDE_ID=2021&OBJECTID=24705
  9. ↑ http://www.kaakko135.fi/paikat/salpalinja
  10. ↑ http://www.miehikkala.fi/index.php?&id=30&mid=6&aid=2625&bid=2632