The Siida Museum is one of Finland’s largest exhibition centers with cultural and natural history exhibitions. It introduces visitors to the peculiarities of life of the indigenous Sámi and tells about their everyday life and customs.

Originally, the term “sieda” referred to a traditional Sámi settlement. After the museum was founded in 1959, their traditional dwellings were moved to the shore of Lake Inarijärvi and it was an open-air museum then. In 1998 an exhibition building was built for it and today the complex consists of an exhibition center with an area of 70 thousand sq. m. and some ancient buildings from the Museum of Inari which has been closed down until now.

What to see
The exhibition is divided into several thematic parts. The largest one contains more than 50 objects, including the houses of Sámi reindeer herders, fishermen and hunters, log cabins, peat buildings, sheds, mobile chums, storehouses and gold miners’ huts, as well as sleighs, boats and other means of transportation.

Another noteworthy site is the Mirhamintupa district court hut, where court proceedings were held until 1905. There are some inscriptions on its walls, scrawled by the convicts who were awaiting their sentences. Archaeological finds and monuments dating from 6,000 to 2,000 years B.C. are also of interest, including house foundations, fireplaces, burnt bones, pottery, tools, and other objects. You can explore the area by walking along a long winding path.

The next part of the museum is located inside the exhibition hall. Here guests are introduced to cottage industry, tools, handicrafts, materials used in the work, Lopar textiles. There are also pictures, videos, dioramas, audio recordings and other sources, telling about the life of the Lapps from the Ice Age to the present. A separate section of the exposition is devoted to the ways people survive in the extreme conditions of the North.

In the Main Forestry Office, open to visitors, you can learn a lot of interesting things about tourism and its possibilities in the pristine nature of Northern Lapland, go deep into the local culture and beliefs, such as shamanism. Despite the fact that local shamans were persecuted in the past, the memory of them lives on in the most valuable finds – cult objects, tambourines, sacrificial reindeer antlers.

Nature lovers can take a walk along the shore of the picturesque Lake Inarijärvi, which is considered sacred, and those who want to take something valuable back home can visit the handicraft shop – the only place in the country, where authentic production made by Sámi artisans from natural materials is sold.