Visiting the idyllic mill village of Verla, surrounded by lakes and forests, is like stepping straight back into the past. It gives a true picture of the early history of the Finnish forest industry. The old groundwood and board mills have been preserved exactly as they were the day they stopped turning in July 1964.
The Verla Mill Museum is a unique and genuine entity. Yet it differs from other museums, where the items on display have been brought from elsewhere and isolated from their original environment. At Verla the opposite applies: traditions are honoured and nothing has been removed. All the main machines and equipment are still there, and more or less in running order. For visitors to see, admire and even touch. Only the operators, the workers, are physically missing, yet even so they are present in many ways.
The owner of the Verla Mill, Kymmene Company (forerunner of the UPM-Kymmene Corporation) founded the Mill Museum in 1972. In 1996 Verla was approved for addition to the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List.
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