Backing onto the runway of Lappeenranta airport (Finland's oldest still in operation), this extraordinary museum has three exhibition halls housed in hangars with helicopters, aeroplanes (including a supersonic MiG-21, a Saab 35 Draken and Saab 91 Safir, and a Nieuport 17 biplane), engines (among them a Fokker CX), scale models and other Finnish aviation memorabilia including air force medals. Reserve ahead to ensure someone's around to let you in.
Karelia Aviation Museum
Lappeenranta
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
2.49 MILES
Standing guard above the harbour, this hulking hilltop fortification was begun by the Swedes and finished by the Russians in the late 18th century. Today…
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The 1929 construction of Imatra's hydroelectric complex (Finland’s largest) dammed the river, but the watery wonder lives on with the spectacular 20…
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Every summer, around 30 sand artists from Finland and abroad gather to build the Hiekkalinna, a giant themed ‘sandcastle’ made from some 3 million kg of…
29.8 MILES
At the southern end of Tverdysh Island is this double line of fortifications, built between 1730 and 1750 as protection against the Swedes and named after…
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This 180-hectare park facing onto tranquil Zashchitnaya Bay is a lovely place to escape the world for a few hours, if not most of the day. It’s laid out…
2.37 MILES
The cavalry are honoured as Lappeenranta’s greatest heroes and the 1772-built former garrison (the town’s oldest building) at the Linnoitus fortress tells…
2.23 MILES
Diagonally across the park from its own bell tower, the adorable wooden Lappee Church was built in 1794 to an unusual ‘double cruciform’ floor plan, the…
23.13 MILES
Founded by Tsar Nicholas I in 1842, Finland's oldest nature park is one of the 27 Finnish national landscapes selected in 1992 as part of the 75th…
Nearby Lappeenranta attractions
2.16 MILES
In the central Sankarihautausmaa park, this evocative war memorial features poignant cubist and modernist sculptures commemorating Finns who died in the…
2.22 MILES
Built in 1826, this lovingly preserved Russian home was owned by the merchant Wolkoff family from 1872 to 1986, and its 10 rooms have been maintained as…
2.23 MILES
Diagonally across the park from its own bell tower, the adorable wooden Lappee Church was built in 1794 to an unusual ‘double cruciform’ floor plan, the…
2.37 MILES
The cavalry are honoured as Lappeenranta’s greatest heroes and the 1772-built former garrison (the town’s oldest building) at the Linnoitus fortress tells…
2.41 MILES
This art museum at the Linnoitus fortress has a permanent collection of modern paintings by Karelian and other Finnish artists. A large part of the space…
2.42 MILES
At the Linnoitus fortress, Finland’s oldest church was completed in 1785 by Russian soldiers and features a glittering iconostasis and other saintly…
2.49 MILES
Standing guard above the harbour, this hulking hilltop fortification was begun by the Swedes and finished by the Russians in the late 18th century. Today…
2.53 MILES
Focusing on the history of Lappeenranta – and of its two sister towns, Käkisalmi (Priozersk) and Vyborg, lost across the Russian border in 1939, this…