Even the third and final day of midsummer was finally coming to an end. We had spent the day touring my favorite region and going back to see locations familiar to me. I didn’t photograph, as I almost never do that in locations I’ve already conquered, except the place where my nightmares were made. But my date was enthusiastic, so I showed her around.
We visited a mental asylum, the Mätäsvaara mine and mining village, and the old mine turned into a mining museum, among others. The sun was setting, and the midsummer date was almost over. That’s when we arrived to an abandoned village school from the 1950’s. I had spotted it during my guided tour of Karelia back in 2021, but didn’t have time to stop back then. I reckoned, that it would stay around much longer than the school I was longing to photograph before darkness, as it was due to be demolished. That didn’t go very well.
Well, I was right. The smaller school was still standing.
The building was originally built in the 1950’s and the school was closed in 2009, as the village didn’t have enough pupils. In 2013 the municipality sold it to an entrepreneur, who said, that they would sell cars and machinery on the property and rent the building out as storage and working spaces.
As you can see, this is another very successful business venture.
It’s been a while since anybody jumped here.
The school itself was a prime example of 1950’s school architecture. This is the classroom wing.
And there behind it we have the gym wing. The teachers’ apartments are in a separate building behind the gym wing. They are inhabited.
The other side of the building had no points of entry either.
There has been a canopy visible on aerial photos on the same spot ever since the 1960’s. Surely it must have been rebuilt at some point.
One more final, longing look towards the gym windows. Not this time.