Virrat Heritage Village is a museum and travel destination for the whole family as well as a summer recreational area on Marttinen island, full of natural beauty. The Heritage Village is located in the immediate vicinity of Youth Centre Marttinen.
In Rajalahti House Museum and in Hali Loggers’ Cabin you can explore rural life in Virrat at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the everyday life of loggers and forest work in the 1950s and 1960s. The Heritage Village also has many other old buildings, such as stables (1820s), a smock mill (1828), a smoke sauna (1840s) and a village storehouse (1878). In addition, there is a War veteran museum presenting 20th century war history and the Canal Museum maintained by the Transport Agency.
The museums in the Heritage Village are open for groups upon request around the year.
In the summertime, events and exhibitions are organised in the Heritage Village. The area has a café-restaurant, kiosk, handcraft, gift and art shops, a playground and Herraskoski canal.
You can book accommodation, restaurant, café and programme services from Youth Centre Marttinen, and you also have free use of the beach, guest boat dock, nature path and field fortification area from World War I.
The community hall was originally built in Monoskylä village.
The old Monoskylä community hall is at the edge of the market square. The hall, originally named “Torppa”, was built in Monoskylä with communal efforts from the logs of Sammalisto house in 1911. Meetings, festivities, study groups and soirees were organised at the hall. There were usually speeches, musical performances, poetry and plays as well as dancing towards the end. It was also possible to gather at the hall just to spend time and the building also housed the community association’s library. The house was maintained with communal work and income from the soirees.
As a result of the civil war of 1917, the operations of the community hall ceased, but started again in the beginning of the 1920s. The hall was a popular gathering place for youth in the 1920s and 1930s. The community association owned a harmonica, and there was always someone to play. In addition, a gramophone was bought for the association’s use, so there was plenty of music for dancing. There were as many as twenty soirees a year with full-length plays organised at similar community association or youth associations halls.
The community association’s activities shrivelled again during the Winter War and Continuation War. After the war, the Monoskylä association continued to decline, and the last meeting was held at this community hall in 1953. The house was left unused and started to fall into decay.
Monoskylä community association donated the house to the Heritage Village. Disassembling and moving the house was carried out with communal effort, and the building was inaugurated in the summer of 1983. The building has been rented out for different kinds of events, meetings and family celebrations.
Virrat Heritage Village
Herrasentie 16
34800 Virrat
p. +358 (0)3 485 1900
perinnekyla@marttinen.fi
Accommodation, restaurant and programme services for groups upon request.
Marttinen is one of the eight centres supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Read more on the websites of Finnish Youth Centres Association