Maritime Centre Vellamo is a unique building in Finland with a wave-like roof. It houses the Maritime Museum of Finland, Museum of Kymenlaakso and Information Centre Vellamo.
The Maritime Museum of Finland is a national maritime museum operating under the National Board of Antiquities and the Ministry of Education, destined to record the history of seafaring in Finland and to convey related information. The Maritime Museum collects and preserves items, photographs, archival material and literature pertaining to seafaring and boating.
In its main exhibition “North Star, Southern Cross”, the Maritime Museum of Finland tells about the history of seafaring in Finland, focusing on issues such as life of seafarers, development of ships, maritime trade, and travelling by sea. The main exhibition also covers the speciality of Northern seafaring, winter shipping and ice.
The Museum of Kymeenlaakso records, studies, preserves and presents the cultural legacy of Kotka and the entire region of Kymenlaakso. The foremost themes of the main exhibition Flow are efficiency as well as the relationship between an individual and the community. These themes are approached from a number of angles, and the topics covered include perception of time, significance of money, boundaries and crossing them, beauty, immortality, work and having fun.
There’s also an icebreaker Tarmo located outside the Vellamo. Built in 1907, it’s one of the oldest still surviving icebreakers in the world.
Towering 52 meters above the sea, Bengtskär lighthouse is the tallest one in Scandinavia. The building started in in 1905 after the shipwreck of S/S Helsingfors and was completed in 1906. The lighthouse was designed by architect Florentin Granholm. On December a special petrol lantern, designed and built in Paris, was brought to Bengtskär and installed atop the tower.
German fleet bombarded Bengstkär in the First World War in 1914. Since the Gulf of Finland was heavily mined, it was not until 1919 that the surrounding seas were declared safe for shipping, that the light was lit again.
After the war the military value of Bengtskär increased as part of the defence system of independent Finland. In Second World War (1941) Soviet Union made a suprise attack to island. After a bloody battle, the small Finnish garrison emerged victorious. Intermittent repairs to the facility continued during the post-war period.