After a long evening of driving and two former petrol stations explored during the journey, we finally reached our main location of the trip. There it is behind an overgrown garden of apple trees and flowers.
This is the former municipal home of a small former municipality. The old, wooden main building was completed in the early 1930’s, the yellow brick building in the early 1950’s. There was also a cow shed and a building for the municipal home staff.
When this building was completed in the 1950’s, the complex housed the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled and mentally disabled and there was even a ward for people needing medical care.
The mentally disabled moved to the city center in the 1970’s, and that’s when the municipal home also gave up farming. The ward was moved to the town center in 1985 and the place became just a nursing home.
The nursing home was closed down in 1991 and the property sold to a private person. It was used as a motel and for other accommodation, but according to a local newspaper, a death by someone in the owning company led to abandonment.
Since then this beautiful building has sadly become a playground for vandals.
A lot of stuff has been thrown through the buidling’s windows out of pure stupidity. This is just so sad.
In addition to vandals, being neglected for a long time had left its mark on the building.
The building was located on a hillside, so the ground floor was partly located underground. This made the corridor pretty dark.
A standard ground floor room. Wonder, what has happened with the radiators here. I strongly suspect scrappers.
There had been a sink in the room. And above it was a tiling with heart shaped decorations.
This room had acted as a storage.
And this one as a workshop. I’m not really sure, if the plywood is covering a window or just acting as a bulletin board.
‘Brother Heavenly And The Key Message’ on VHS. Does sure look interesting.
A second shot from the same room, this time with a flash. This is the third BMW tag I found in the building. Who has such a fixation towards a car brand?
Moving forward along the corridor. Many of the doors to the left side were locked. That was the side with no windows, so I reckoned there was nothing interesting there.
The rooms to the other side were much lighter. The BMW guy has struck again.
Wood panels and 1980’s furniture.
This room looks a bit like it has been a kitchen of some sort.
The mystery deepens: newspapers in Russian.
Something you’d never expect to find in an abandoned building in the Finnish countryside: signs in Thai.
And yes, it is Thai. I tried writing Room 105 to Google translate, and it looks pretty much like the text on the top row, which makes it kind of funny. Huone 105 (Room 105) was an 1980’s hit song by Nisa Soraya, a British born artist, who was brought to Finland to sing in Finnish without actually knowing any Finnish. Less surprisingly the song is about an invitation to a hotel room.
I am again taking liberties and making guesses, but I think the building was used to accommodating seasonal workers like berry pickers or farm workers, who often come from Thailand or former Soviet states to spend summers in Finland.
So much for guesses. It’s time to enter room 105.