Open-air museum. Exhibition of miniatures showing the layout of villages in Larsmo in the 1930s. Toy exhibition.

• Open in summertime. At other times by appointment.
• Voluntary entry fee.
• Guided tours.
• Refreshments available upon reservation.

More information

Bjärgas is a relatively new museum area. The Larsmo Local History Society received the homestead and the museum site as a donation in 1982. Ten years later the Bjärgas Local Museum was opened after an extensive restoration. The age of the buildings is unknown, but the architecture indicates the late 18th century. It seems as if the homestead has always been called 'Bjärgas'. The name is derived from the word 'berg' ("rock"): the farmhouse was built directly on the bedrock.

Today the farmhouse is red with white corners. When Bjärgas was built in the 18th century, it had only unpainted timber walls. Reddle was not an everyday commodity and there was no money for decorating buildings. The house was not boarded up until the 19th century.

One of the early masters at Bjärgas visited America in his youth, where he came into contact with the Mormon Church. Partly because of him The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was introduced to Larsmo by the 1880s, which was 60 years earlier than the rest of Finland. Not until 1945 was the Mormon Church established in Finland.

The Bjärgas homestead includes a barn, a stable, a feed storage, a granary and a sleeping shed. All buildings stand on their original sites. The farmhouse has two sections; a meeting hall and a museum area.

The furnishings of the main room demonstrate the interior of a farmhouse at the turn of the 20th century. They indicate a certain affluence, with the richly bedded bunkbeds, the shelf for plates and dishes and the colourful carpets on the floor. The farmhouse also has extraordinary tiled stoves.

The permanent toy exhibition in the attic attracts both the young and the old. The exhibition is particularly suitable for a museum in Larsmo; the district has one of the highest birth rates in Finland.

The museum area also contains a windmill, a blacksmith's workshop, a wash-house, a mangling-house with a functioning mangle, a crofter's cottage, a cowherd's cottage and the Skatasgården farmhouse. All of these buildings have been moved here from other places in Larsmo.

The bottom floor of Skatasgården exhibits miniature models of old building groups in Larsmo. The cultural landscape has changed considerably in the 20th century. The miniatures show the layout of villages in the 1930s.

The museum houses the exhibition "In the footsteps of Wilhelm Schalin". Wilhelm Schalin was a clergyman of Larsmo in the late 19th century and contributed to the establishment of the first elementary school in the district in 1875. The exhibition highlights the influence of teachers on the development of the villages.