Paimio Sanatorium Theme Tours

Theme Tours - Choose your theme

Starting location: Paimio Sanatorium main entrance, outside.

Languages: Finnish and English. Also available, with limitations: Swedish, German, Italian.

All private tours have to be pre-booked. There is no one at the Sanatorium on stand-by. 

Address: Alvar Aallontie 275, Paimio

Young architects Alvar and Aino Aalto

Your guide tells you more about the ideals behind the architecture. Alvar and Aino were about 30 years old while designing Paimio Sanatorium. Why have they chosen these railings, windows or door handles for this building? What is the idea behind these various forms?

Furniture at Paimio Sanatorium

Paimio Sanatorium was finished two years before Artek – furniture company was founded. Aaltos designed all the furniture, lamps and so on for this large building. During this theme tour we concentrate on details of the furniture and talk about manufacturing. Why are there so many different chairs?

Cultural history of Sanatorium

What was is like to be a patient at Paimio Sanatorium in different decades? What was Finland like in 1930s when the Sanatorium was built and how is it reflected on the architecture? Your guide will tell you stories about how alcohol was smuggled to the Sanatorium and how people living around the Sanatorium felt about it. 

Tuberculosis and its treatments

This theme concentrates on medical side of the Sanatorium history. What kind of disease is tuberculosis and how was it treated in different decades? What was it like to be a patient at Paimio Sanatorium? How architecture would help to fight this deadly disease?

Duration of a theme tour is 2 hours.