Explore Naantali

Naantali Church is the grey-stone church of the Bridgettine convent founded in Naantali in 1443, built in the second half of the 15th century, and the only convent building still standing. The town grew up beside the convent, which closed after the Reformation. The church now serves the Lutheran parish and is the main venue of the Naantali Music Festival.

Moominworld is a theme park based on Tove Jansson's Moomin books, on the island of Kailo next to the old town of Naantali. Visitors can walk through all five storeys of the blue Moomin House, built in 1993 after Jansson's drawings, visit the houses of other characters, follow forest paths and watch plays at Theatre Emma; the park has no rides.

Kultaranta is the summer residence of the President of Finland on the island of Luonnonmaa in Naantali. Its granite main building, designed by Lars Sonck for the businessman Alfred Kordelin, was completed in 1915. The house is not open to visitors; in summer they tour the formal garden by Svante and Paul Olsson, with its rose beds, fountain and park.

Turku Castle is a stone castle near the mouth of the Aura River, founded in the late 13th century and the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It was the seat of royal governors and, in the 1550s, the court of Duke John and Catherine Jagiellon. Run by the Turku City Museum, it shows the medieval keep, the Renaissance halls and the castle's history.

Forum Marinum is the national maritime museum of Finland and the Finnish Navy's museum, in former warehouses on the Aura River near the port of Turku. Opened in 1999, it covers seafaring, shipbuilding and the navy. Its museum ships include the full-rigged ship Suomen Joutsen of 1902, the wooden barque Sigyn of 1887 and the steamship Bore.

Turku Art Museum stands on Puolalanmäki Hill at the head of Aurakatu, in a granite building by Gustaf Nyström completed in 1904. Paid for by the Dahlström brothers, it was the second purpose-built art museum in Finland after the Ateneum. The Turku Art Society, founded in 1891, owns the collection of Finnish art and runs changing exhibitions.

Turku Market Hall is a brick market hall on Eerikinkatu near the Market Square, opened in 1896 and designed by Gustaf Nyström. It is the second oldest market hall in Finland. Entrances at both ends and along the sides lead to about 40 shops, stalls and restaurants selling fish, meat, bread, cheese and other food under one long roof.

Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova is a museum of archaeology and contemporary art on the east bank of the Aura River in central Turku. Aboa Vetus shows the excavated remains of medieval Turku beneath the Rettig Palace of 1928, while Ars Nova presents contemporary art and the museum's collection. The two museums opened in 1995 and merged in 2004.

The Sibelius Museum is a museum of music near Turku Cathedral, named after the composer Jean Sibelius and run by the Åbo Akademi Foundation. It began in the 1920s as a musicology seminar at Åbo Akademi University. Its concrete building, designed by Woldemar Baeckman, opened in 1968 and holds musical instruments from around the world, a Sibelius exhibition and a concert hall.

Luostarinmäki Handicrafts Museum is an open-air museum in a quarter of wooden houses below Vartiovuori Hill, the largest area of Turku to survive the Great Fire of 1827. The buildings stand on their original plots, laid out from the 1770s, and have been a museum since 1940. Workshops, homes and courtyards show the life of the town's craftsmen.