About Forum Marinum

Information about the Maritime Centre 

What Centre? 

The Forum Marinum Maritime Centre is a national special maritime museum, the Finnish Navy Museum, and a maritime event centre. We offer interesting exhibitions, visits to museum ships, and a venue for organising one-of-a-kind meetings or parties. Our museum shop has all kinds of maritime souvenirs and gifts available, while the museum restaurant Göran offers unique seafood delights. 

The Forum Marinum Maritime Centre is administered by the Forum Marinum Foundation, which was established in 1998. The purpose of the foundation is to safeguard and preserve the maritime cultural heritage of the Finnish south-west coast, the Archipelago Sea and the Baltic Sea. Forum Marinum organises various exhibitions, meetings, conferences and educational activities pertaining to seafaring, harbour activities and ship and boat building; it supports events organised by others and functions as a coordinator for various maritime events.
A foundation for the administration and operation of Finland’s first museum ship Sigyn was founded in 1993. Before this, the Åbo Akademi University Foundation had maintained the ship since 1939. The purpose of the Foundation for the Museum Ship Sigyn is to own, restore, maintain and preserve the museum ship as a vessel and a historical museum in Turku. 

Forum Marinum is a member of the Finnish Museums Association, the ICOM (International Council of Museums), and the ICMM (International Council of Maritime Museums). 

History 

Forum Marinum is the result of the development of the maritime museum activities in Turku. It was preceded by the Maritime Museum at Åbo Akademi University, established in 1936, and the Turku Maritime Museum and Astronomical Collections, founded in 1977. 

Forum Marinum began its operation in the beginning of 1999, and the new maritime centre was inaugurated with due ceremony in July of the same year. The Maritime Museum at Åbo Akademi University is nowadays the Institute of Maritime History at Åbo Akademi University (Sjöhistoriska Institutet vid Åbo Akademi) and it is located at the Forum Marinum Maritime Centre, in the Linnanpuomi building. In addition to research, the institute’s focus is on the accumulation and maintenance of the library and archive collections. Forum Marinum is responsible for adding to and maintaining the maritime object collections and for the exhibitions. 

In 2002, Forum Marinum was appointed as the museum to preserve the history of the Finnish Naval Forces, and in 2004, as the national special nautical museum. In 2009, Forum Marinum joined the Trafiikki Museums Association, a network of Finnish museums that focus on traffic and communications. The association is supported by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. In 2015, the museum’s responsibilities were expanded to cover the history of the entire Finnish Navy. In 2020, national special museums began to be designated as museums with national responsibility, and Forum Marinum was one of these museums. 

Buildings 

Museum premises are located in two buildings. The tall, red-brick Kruununmakasiini houses our main exhibition Working at Sea, a ship shelter, and the restaurant Göran. Göran’s unique feature is the sailing boat Daphne placed inside the restaurant. The Kruununmakasiini building is especially historic, as it is an old state grain storage from the Russian Empire era, built in 1894. The building was renovated as an exhibition space in the early 2000s. 

The white Linnanpuomi building houses the temporary exhibitions’ space, pleasure vessel collection, museum shop, auditorium, and offices. Linnanpuomi is a former salt warehouse of the SOK Corporation, and it also used to have offices, just like today. It was built in the 1930s and renovated as an exhibition space between 1985 and 1986. 

Archipelago Sea Square 

The Archipelago Sea Square (Saaristomeriaukio) is a square located in the Forum Marinum yard, next to Linnankatu. The area consists of slabs bearing the names of donors. The donors were private individuals who bought a slab during a fundraising campaign for the preservation of the Archipelago Sea. A total of 4,550 slabs were produced, with a total of 120,000 euro raised for the Archipelago Protection Fund. In the opening ceremony of the square in 2011, the donors were invited to stand on the slabs named after them. 

The Archipelago Sea Square has a designated area for the slabs dedicated to the distinguished guests visiting the city. Among these guests are Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Prince Daniel, and the Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen.