The History of the Satakunta Museum 

Porin Suomalainen Seura (“The Finnish Society of Pori”) founded Satakunta Museum in 1888. It was the era of the rise of national awareness, and museums were founded all over Finland to conserve the people’s history. The accumulation of Satakunta Museum collections began right away.  

In 1899 the museum became part of the City of Pori functions. At first the museum had temporary premises, until in 1903 it moved permanently to the Iltama House, where the omnifarious museum collections were on show in small exhibition rooms. The now dismantled building was situated at the present Pori main library site.   

The present-day museum building on Hallituskatu was finished in 1973. It was one of the first museum buildings in Finland especially built for cultural and historical use, and among other things enabled expanding the exhibition operations. The building was designed by Arkkitehtitoimisto Olaf Küttner Ky. In 2018 was the opening of the current permanent exhibition Elon merkkejä – Signs of Life, which is the third permanent exhibition in the history of the Satakunta Museum.  

Satakunta Museum has carried out regional duties since 1980, and from the beginning of the year 2020 as a museum with regional responsibilities appointed by the Finnish Heritage Agency.  

Along the years the museum operations have grown, and in 2020s the Pori museums have services in six unique museum locations. The renovation centre Building Heritage Museum Toivo and the adjacent Korsman House were opened in the V district of Pori in 1995. The natural history museum, the Ark Nature Centre, started in the former telephone company property at Pohjoispuisto 7 in 2000. The Rosenlew Museum, opened in 2006, operates in a former Crown granary in Aittaluoto. The Lavia local history museum also became a part of Satakunta Museum in the beginning of 2015. Starting from 2021 Satakunta Museum and Pori Art Museum are joined as the City of Pori museum services.