Verla Mill

About this place

Verla is a well-preserved 19th-century mill village at Jaala in Kouvola, southeastern Finland, on the northern Kymi River. The mill, nearby power plants and workers' houses were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1996 as a testimony to the 19th-century timber industry and the lives of its workers. It lies about 136 km in a straight line from Helsinki. Hugo Neuman founded the first groundwood mill here in 1872, but it burned down in 1876. In 1882 Gottlieb Kreidl and Louis Haenel founded a larger groundwood and board mill, which ran until 18 July 1964, when the last of the old workers retired. It became a museum of board-making technology in 1972, with the historic machines left in place. Most of the mill buildings are red brick in a Neo-Gothic style, with small pointed turrets and arched windows, and on the west bank stand the mill owner's wooden house and its park. The river rushes through the dam and rapids, and the buildings look out over a calm lake among pine trees. The mill is seen on a guided tour that follows the production process, and the museum opens mainly in summer. The village and riverbank can be explored freely.