So here I am in a small village in the middle of nowhere. And this is the school of the village. It looks like it has been built in the 1940’s or 1950’s, but it was definitely closed in 1998. After that it served as a hostel of some sort.
I am here, because I received a tip that it is all open doors. And if I get in this is the northernmost abandoned place I have ever visited. This is way past the polar circle.
According to old aerial photos, this wing has been added later.
Like the tip promised, it is all open doors.
Inside I am. I took a turn left to the first room, and suddenly stopped.
Now I don’t know, if this is a joke made by the local youth or if there really is somebody sleeping in there, but I didn’t stay to find out.
Let’s explore the other wing first.
There was an apartment. It was probably for the caretaker or for a teacher.
But it had since turned into a room with two beds and an early 2000’s TV.
Or actually several beds. This place looks so fresh, that it can’t have been abandoned for a long time.
There was an older TV, too. One of my favorite wood covered ones.
This looks like a sauna dressing room.
And there is the boiler room and the switchboard.
Surprise: it was a sauna dressing room.
Of course there is a sauna in a rural Finnish school.
The school seen from the outside. The first wing has now been explored.
I went around the back to see if there would be an entrance further away from the potential sleeper.
There indeed was a third entrance. But it was locked.
Or actually two more entrances. I believe the taller section of the building to be the teacher apartment wing. The layout is pretty similar to this old village school.
There were no doors at the back.
Even some reindeer had come to greet me. I decided to ignore the potential sleeper. I had come this far out, I was going in.