The Mannerheim museum’s permanent exhibition presents the authentic interior of Gustaf Mannerheim’s home. Mannerheim lived in the white Kalliolinna villa between 1924 and 1951. The museum presents the home as it was in the early 1940s. Apart from the three exhibition rooms on the upper floor, the interiors are original.
Influences from the 19th century and the view of life of that time can be sensed in the rooms of the home. The colour schemes and household effects create a harmonious collection of rooms. In interior design and room placement, the traditional hierarchical division of housing is repeated in ground-floor housekeeping rooms, downstairs reception rooms, that is, public spaces and upstairs residential rooms, that is, private spaces. Mannerheim himself decorated the villa and created himself a personal style and an elegant home. Mannerheim has left his stamp on the objects and the interior of the home. In the early 1920s the house was renovated according to Mannerheim’s wishes. It was then the current placement of rooms was created, and the equipping was modernised.
As the Home Museum is an unaltered and untouched permanent exhibition, Mannerheim's own objects emerge, and the messages contained in them continue to be clearly raised. Portraits of his ancestors tell about the family history. The gifts and tributes given by the Finnish state and the people speak for Mannerheim's life's work for the country, both in the military, political and humanitarian sphere. The unique collection of decorations is a testimony to the appreciation of this life's work not only in his home country, but also abroad. Numerous hunting trophies and souvenirs tell a story of an avid hunter and explorer, a large library on the other hand of extensive interest in different walks of life. In the house, you can still sense the calm, homely atmosphere created by the civilized cosmopolitan with a confident taste.
