Museum of Orthodox Culture in Kupio

The Museum of Orthodox Culture, located in Kuopio, Finland, was opened in 1957. At the present site, the museum has been operating since 1969, when a separate, small-sized building in the Art Nouveau style of glass and stone was built for it.

The basis of the museum collection consists of exhibits from the Valaam Monastery, which were taken from there inland in 1939, after the outbreak of the war between Finland and the Soviet Union, and items of church art of the XVII – XX centuries, evacuated from other Orthodox parishes of the country.

Among the exhibits you can see icons decorated with precious stones, a psalter in a silver salary, sacred church clothes with embroidery of gold and silver. Of particular value are the stone chains of the faith that belonged to hermit monks from the island of Valaam.