The Border Guard Museum is a national museum that presents the history of the Finnish Border Guard. The museum focuses on operations by land and air. It documents and presents the history of land border surveillance by the Border Guard, the history of air and rescue operations and the history of border troops during the wars. The exhibition premises of the Border Guard Museum are located next to Finland’s eastern border at the Immola barracks in Imatra.
The Border Guard Museum began operating in 1989 as an internal teaching museum of the Border Guard, but the attractiveness of the museum was soon seen to be so great that it was worth opening its doors to the general public. The exhibition of the Border Guard Museum is open in summer and by appointment at other times.
Securing Finland's borders has remained the core task of the Border Guard since its beginning, but its operations have changed and developed considerably in the course of history. The Border Guard Museum provides a versatile overview of the different historical stages and duties of the organisation over a period of more than 100 years.
The Finnish Border Guard's maritime operations are presented at the Coast Guard Museum, which is housed in the Kotka Maritime Centre in Vellamo, where the Border Guard's air fleet is also on display.
Embark on a journey with the border guards in Immola
The Border Museum, located on the historic Immola barracks area in Imatra, has been renovated. The new main exhibition Guardians of Finland – The Border Guard in the heart of border security then and now opens to the public on Tuesday, 11 June 2024. The exhibition is open throughout the summer until 3 August, as well as on Sunday, 11 August, when we celebrate the Museum Road Day.
The exhibition progresses chronologically from the early days of Finland's independence to the present-day NATO Finland. At the centre of the exhibition are the border guards' own experiences from different eras. The exhibition reveals how border security work has been done, what the current threats have been, and how they have been addressed.
The Border Museum tells the story of the Border Guard as a security authority. How it was founded and how it has come to the present day.
The new Border Museum tells all of this in a modern way, utilizing contemporary exhibition technology. Materials and content from the history of the Border Guard that have not previously been presented to the public are displayed. These include, among other things, defection and espionage cases on the eastern border during the Cold War. There is plenty to see for museum visitors, but also things to do: visitors can, for example, test how passport control works.
Welcome to Finland's most modern authority museum!
Visit our online exhibitions:
