Draft:Museum Inn Rauhala

In the front of Museum inn Rauhala you can find a traditional Eastern Finnish nature garden.

Usually Inn houses were built next to a railway station as Museum Inn Rauhala here next to Myllykoski station.

Museum Inn Rauhala is Finland's oldest still operating traditional Finnish inn. It is located in Kouvola. Rauhala is a representative of its era, a unique inn that is still in operation. It is a living museum, which operates in the original protected milieu and in a site built for an inn house. The resident of the inn can participate and experience the authentic, traditional serene inn life of the 1930s in the original milieu firsthand.

Post World War I Accommodation

Rauhala's architecture has preserved the functional design of the 1930s. According to the type drawings, other similar inn houses were also built in Finnish settlements, usually near railway stations, but most of these inn houses have already been demolished. The Rauhala Inn was built at Myllykoski next to railway station in 1933. It was built by paper master Lilja, who had previously established other inn houses called Rauhala in the name of his wife in Suojärvi, Pori and Voikkaa. After the First World War, Rauhala became the most typical name of Finnish inn houses. The name meaning peace was common after the Great War, where the name of a modest inn became common as "Pax Inn" – "Inn of Peace" all the way to India.

Museum Inn

Rauhala Inn is a living museum, offering the visitor an authentic touch of the 1930s era. Efforts have been made to keep the Inn in its original condition as much as possible, and to preserve it in reconstruction of the museum site. The ground floor of Rauhala once housed commercial apartments where Myllykoski hardware store, Myllykoski auto school and Fotostudio Helena have started their operations. Locals remember how during the war the children acted as military couriers, bringing messages to the staff officers of the headquarters' fortress officers staying in Rauhala Inn. The the fortress office was located in the premises of the nearby Myllykoski paper factory.

The size of the inn house is about 200 m².There are two commercial apartments on the ground floor, one of which originally became a canteen and a cafe. According to the type drawings, there were 5 passenger rooms on the upper floor. The business rooms on the ground floor of the building once housed, a hardware store, a driving school and a photography studio, which still operate in Myllykoski, but in different properties

Usually Inn Houses were a family bussiness as here the Mölsäs family in 1965.

The Finnish Rillumarei era

In the 1950s, the Inn house accommodated, among other things, the traveling comedy theater Punainen Mylly. Along with the theater people, the house was visited by Aku Korhonen, Olavi Virta, Tapio Rautavaara, Esa Pakarinen and other Finnish Rillumarei-era musicians. The house was also visited by a folk school teacher Juha Vainio well known in music circles, who worked as a folk school teacher in the village in the 1960s.. At the end of the 1950s, Kitty Linder, who presented herself as Mannerheim's bride, lived in the inn for a long time in room no. 2. Linder went every month to withdraw her child support money from the local KOP branch, Matkustajakodi's hostess Eeva Partanen says in her memoirs . In Riku Rantala and Tunna Milonoff's Madventures Suomi travel guide (Johnny Kniga), Museomajatalo Rauhala Inn is one of Iltalehti's favorite destinations. Jantso Jokel and Touko Hujanen (2022) Joutoretki Road Trip to Hidden Finland, Like: Matkustajakoti Rauhala is one of the accommodation places of the Rillumarei period.

Cultural Heritage Inn

Finland's independence anniversary 2017 Rauhala Inn is the oldest business in Kouvola still operating in its original premises. It has been selected as part of the Suomi 100 project Our Kymenlaakso project, which presents 100 companies from Kymenlaakso on the occasion of Finland's jubilee. Iltalehti has listed Rauhala as one of the most interesting places to stay in Finland. This is well explained in Riku Rantala and Tunna Milonoff's Madventures Suomi travel guide. According to the guide, Majatalo Rauhala is a classic inn that has served the entertainment crowd for almost a century and breathes the atmosphere of the 1930s. Local students have been involved in the restoration work. The inn is kept like a living museum, so the adventurer who appreciates history will find the peace of Rauhala. Entertainment artists also visited Rauhala in their time.

On topic elsewhere

• Kievari Museum, Kouvola Archived 2012-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
• The silent stories of the old inn YLE
• The light is still burning Matkustajakoti Rauhala is still waiting for travelers in Myllykoski. YLE
• Museomajatalo website Archived 2023-04-23 at the Wayback Machine