Current exhibitions

The Uusikaupunki Museum organises temporary themed exhibitions. 

Exhibitions are organised most regularly at Wahlberg’s House. 

Christmas in a Seafaring Family

30.11.2025-9.1.2026

The Wahlberg Museum House in Uusikaupunki will once again be decorated for Christmas starting at the end of November this year. In the bourgeois rooms on the ground floor, the scent of Christmas flowers fills the air, and sparkling ornaments and Christmas trees create a festive atmosphere. In addition to the decorations, the permanent exhibitionrooms offer a glimpse into how seafaring families celebrated Christmas.

In the rooms of the bourgeois home, visitors can read excerpts from the early-20th-century letters of the Widberg family, a local sea captain’s household. The letters written by the captain’s wife Julia and their son Alpo are filled with longing and dreams of reunion, but also with stories about the small joys of Christmas, gifts, and visits from Santa Claus. Through these letters, one gains insight into what it was like to spend Christmas without a husband and father who was sailing abroad.

In the museum’s upstairs permanent exhibition, the perspective shifts to the sailors themselves. What was Christmas like far from home, without one’s family? Upstairs, Julia’s husband, sailing-ship captain Henrik Widberg, writes about his Christmases, as does first mate Einar Ilmanen, who spent Christmas on the motor vessel Wasaborg in Australia in 1956.

Among the first – The women of Uusikaupunki in the world on men will be on display at the Wahlberg´s museum House.

The 2025 main exhibition at Wahlberg’s House tells the story of women who participated in tasks or made a career in fields that were traditionally considered the men’s domain in the late 19th and early 20th century. These women usually came from middle-class families, which gave them the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

The exhibition showcases the women’s perspective in the gradual change that started taking place in the lives of women. Among the first is an exhibition on women’s opportunities, rights and equality struggles in Finland in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The exhibition will be on display at the Wahlberg Museum House from June 9, 2025 to March 27, 2026.

In addition to the temporary exhibitions, the rest of the Wahlberg’s House museum also tells visitors of the past of Uusikaupunki. The permanent exhibition on the ground floor, the ‘bourgeois home’, shows how local merchant families lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while the permanent exhibition on the top floor provides information about the founding of Uusikaupunki and local maritime history. On the top floor, you can also find information about for example the Uusikaupunki peace treaty of 1721, the car industry, and you even get to admire the trainers that Junnu Lee, a national team basketball player from Uusikaupunki, wore at a World Cup tournament.