Hanko Front Line Museum

The museum’s permanent exhibition Hanko in Foreign Hands has been completely renewed. The modern museum facilities include a high-standard exhibition space providing a good overview of the events of 1939 –1941 when the city of Hanko was of strategic importance for Finland. The permanent exhibition consists of a careful selection of photographs, informative texts and maps. Our new showcases contain objects including kitchen utensils, tableware, weapons, medals and uniforms. There is also a film on the evacuation. The exhibition also presents life in idyllic Hanko before the Winter War of 1939 –1940. The Winter War and the emotional aspects of its evacuation in March 1940 are naturally included.

The exhibition also describes and demonstrates the Harparskog Line across Hankoniemi Cape, which was Finland’s first line of defence. It is a unique experience to be in the museum, knowing that the border of the Soviet lease area was only about a hundred metres away.

The Artillery Hall is a space for ten wartime artillery pieces, which were all used by the Finnish Defence Forces during the Second World War. This hall also offers a space for permanent and temporary exhibitions. Here you can find out more about the history of the Finnish Air Force, the Molotov cocktail and the history of the swastika.

The Hanko Front Museum is in a strategically important location. Important events in the history of Finland took place in the pine forest here. The whole area has an atmosphere of the past, and a feeling of history can be gained on a quiet walk around the site. There are communication and firing trenches just outside the museum building, and the Gyllene Freden dug-out and the Hillock of Death are only a stone’s throw away.

For our younger visitors there is the recently built obstacle course and next to it a new roof shelter with benches and tables for a moment’s rest.

The War Path, slightly over a kilometre long, begins behind the museum building. This marked route passes through the area defended by the Swedish Volunteer Battalion during the Continuation War and it continues to the former Soviet side of the front. Its main locations are marked with white arrows and signs. The path includes communication trenches, tent puts, a latrine, a firing position, a tunnel, a large slingshot for grenades and other features. An information booklet following the War Path can be borrowed from the canteen.