The Artillery Museum of Finland is a military history museum originally founded in 1977 in the village of Niinisalo in the building of a closed school, has been re reopened to the public after being moved to Hämeenlinna. At the new location, the building of the Fortress Cossacks was allocated to the museum. Fortress Barracks building was allocated to the museum in 1997.
The main exhibition is housed in a three-storey building. The first floor is dedicated to the history of artillery from the beginning of the 15th century, when Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden until it gained autonomy and the Civil War of Independence in 1918. The hall "Glory to the Fatherland" contains battle honours of the country's defenders.
The first floor is occupied by an exposition devoted to the period of the beginning of independence (1919), the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 and the Second World War of 1941-45. In a display case of the museum there is a military uniform of the tallest Finnish artilleryman, who is 2 m 26 cm tall. There is also a model of a cannon from 1940.
The third floor tells about the history of artillery, garrison life in the barracks, the improvement of the guns from 1945 to the 2000s. There is also a collection of of tin soldiers from 1812 to 1960.
In the artillery guns exhibition hall, which is located in the premises of the former stables, contains guns of historical value. These are mainly guns transported by horse-draught.
In the museum yard there are about 100 different guns, including a heavy mortar, a Soviet-made rocket launcher and an honourable howitzer. Demonstration Building films from 1939-44 are shown in English, Swedish, German and Finnish languages.
