Paavo's Inn
The Ukko-Paavo Inn consists of three separate log circles and an entrance hall connecting them. Paavo and Riitta's chambers date from the 1830s: the large smoking room dates from 1852, the year Paavo Ruotsalainen died, and the kitchen from the early 1900s.
Paavo's Inn is the most valuable building on Aholansaari. It is a site of cultural and historical value protected by the National Board of Antiquities. The building has been used as a museum since the 1930s. Today it is used as a museum for Paavo Ruotsalainen, a social room and a teaching space.
During the time of Reverend Kleofas Hyvämäki - after 1913 - the building was remodelled to its present appearance. The relationships between the building frames, the shape of the vestibule and the unified water roof date from that period. The concrete foundation under the kitchen and chambers was built in the 1930s. In the 1940s, just after the war, the building underwent some minor repairs.
Before the 1952 Nilsiä Herättäjäfestival, the building was renovated more thoroughly. Rotten logs were replaced both at the bottom of the walls and at the level of the intermediate walls. The floors were largely replaced by collecting old, wide planks from various places. The thatched roof of the house, which had previously been a turf roof, was replaced with a whitewashed roof. The kitchen and pantries were covered with the old whitewashed roof.
In 1982, the roof was completely replaced with a felt roof, on top of which new ash and reeds were installed. The roof was covered with a new substrate of reeded boarding. On the eaves, rhizome hooks support the plank on which the millwork rests. The chimneys in the kitchen and chambers were removed from the upper parts of the roof at this stage. In 2000-2001, the roof had to be replaced again. The lighting in the Paavo barn was improved in 1996 and 2017.
Read Lauri Julkunen's article about Paavo's Inn here
