The sun had already started to set on our second date day. It was the hottest midsummer in years, and my summer car had no air conditioning. We were rather tired and sweaty and decided to invest on an Airbnb somewhere in the countryside.
But before that I took my date to the most beautiful road in Finland, and when I mentioned the abandoned caviar factory I had photographed two years earlier, I immediately had her interest. It wasn’t too big of a detour, so off we went.
It all looks so familiar. The main entrance is to the right, the auditorium is to the left. It looks like a later addition, now that I have a closer look at it.
I still laugh at this. It was for nobody. The company never produced a single tin of caviar for sale.
The old and collapsed halls. Now we just need to find the tanks.
It’s been a few years, but I think I remember…
That is no longer correct. And never will be.
If I can remember correctly, the collapsed areas have grown over the past few years. And no, the water on the floor is not from the fish tanks. The roof is leaking everywhere.
The auditorium.
To go around the collapsed area, we had to go through the back of the destroyed office wing.
We should reach the tanks soon.
Except that there were none. They had either been in the collapsed section, or then here, as I can’t remember seeing such bays before. Somebody has removed them.
Since my first visit, the turns around the already crazy story of this old factory have become even more absurd. In 2023 it was bought by a former member of the Russian duma. He claimed to demolish the buildings and start a wood and metal processing plant on the lot.
But the plans abruptly changed. He next told, that an engineer of his company had invented a self-charging generator, which produces electricity for free. He intended to demolish and rebuild or renovate the buildings to manufacture these devices to be used on electronic vehicles.
The Finnish authorities deemed the plans as bullshit and declined the sale. The old owners were given six months to sell the property, but it proved to be impossible. It was confiscated, and the state will now try to sell it.
It remains to be seen, who the hell would like to buy a useless factory ruin in the middle of nowhere. I believe, that this story is far from over.