Finnish Museum of Natural History

With a visitor in town, I again had some great suggestions for touring Helsinki from my coworkers. I realized that I had previously over-looked the Finnish Museum of Natural History, or Luomos. This is located in the Töölö neighborhood and is a part of the University of Helsinki. The building was built in 1913 as a Russian gymnasium and functioned as such until 1923 when it was adopted by the University of Helsinki. At this point, it housed part of the biology department and my bosses can recall attending classes there while working on their bachelor degrees. In 1988, it became the Museum of Natural History.

                                                                                             courtesy of luomos.fi


This museum was fantastic. It is manageable in an afternoon and is reasonably priced: 10 euros for adults with various discounts for students, University staff, and children. The majority of the museum is a permanent exhibition, but all of the information is in Finnish or Swedish. However, there are free audio tours available, at least in English. And this guy was in the front hall to greet everyone:

courtesy of luomos.fi

The exhibits held animals from around the world, prehistoric to present, but especially showcased those animals that one would find in Finland. What I found interesting was the realistic nature of the displays: animals acting as predators and prey. For example, in one display, a lion was dragging a limp zebra in its mouth. There was also animal scat from each animal in every display. I tried to recall, but I don't remember seeing such realistic exhibits in the Museum of Natural History in New York.

The temporary exhibit at the museum was on bats. The room was made to mimic a bat-cave with sounds of a bat flying overhead (all too real for me). This display had information in the usual Finnish and Swedish, but also included English. Take home message: very few species of bats suck blood. Even fewer attack humans.

If you enjoy looking at dinosaur bones and taxidermied animals, then this is the place for you. Even if you don't, it is a small dose and I highly recommend it!