Crown Granary

Ernst Bernhardt Lohrman (1803–1870), architect at the office of the State Intendant, designed a new crown granary for Raahe in 1849. The brick granary was completed in 1852, and its capacity was 12,000 grain barrels. The Crown Granary functioned as the State’s grain storage until 1910, so all in all, it served its original purpose for over 50 years. After this, the Finnish Defence Forces took over the control of the Crown Granary and used it as the main storage facility of the Raahe military district until 1993. In 1995, the Town of Raahe rented this cultural historic granary and it was used as a cold storage facility until the Town of Raahe finally bought the building from the State in 2001.

The Crown Granary of Raahe went through a major change as it was turned into a storage, exhibition and office space for the museum. With the help of a grant from the Ministry of Education, the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, a challenge campaign organised by the Raahe Society, the Town of Raahe and private donations, 600 m² of warm storage space, 300 m² of work spaces and about 300 m² of exhibition spaces were set up in the Crown Granary. The Crown Granary opened to the public on 21 October 2012, the 150th anniversary of the Raahe Museum.

The museum presents excerpts from the history of Raahe from prehistoric times to the modern day. The exhibits that are now open allow you to dive into Raahe’s prehistory, for example, with a miniature model of the Stone Age village of Kettukangas or by performing an archaeological excavation at the Tervakangas through a touch screen. The touch screen in the medieval section presents chapters from the history of the old church of Salo (Saloinen), and Olavi from Salonkylä introduces medieval life in the area. The section on the Great Power period features hearing and seeing the first mayor of Raahe, Henrik Corte, talk about the town’s early stages. In connection with the exhibit on the excavations in Pekkatori Square, you will also be able to piece together the town of Raahe in its earliest form as a virtual jigsaw puzzle. The video presentation in the section on the period of autonomy relives a terrible incident, the Great Fire of 1810.

Maybe the most famous object of museum's collections, the Old Gentleman, the world's oldest surviving diving suit is located in Crown Granary.