Mustarinda House

The Mustarinda House is situated on the second highest summit in the Kainuu region, adjacent to the north-east edge of the Paljakka nature reserve. The surrounding view is of valuable, and in some places, completely untouched old-growth forests. Paljakka and Mustarinda are also some of Finland’s snowiest areas. Mustarinda is the only inhabited house on the summit.

The Mustarinda facilities were renovated and equipped in 2009 for course, accommodation and residence use. If you want to arrange events or seminars in Mustarinda, please contact us via email: info (at) mustarinda.fi

We have beds for 18 guests and seminar rooms for 40 persons. We have sought to create well-functioning and cosy facilities while respecting the original spirit of the buildings. We have decorated them using mostly 1950’s furniture and textiles. Eco-friendly solutions are stressed in all operations in the house.

The main building has eight double/twin rooms, some with room for an extra bed. The common rooms include a dining room, a living room, a sauna, a bathroom/disabled toilet, and two guest toilets. Two of the rooms are en-suite. Guests are also welcome to use an atelier/seminar room of approx. 50m2. Audiovisual equipment and a video projector are available on request. In the yard, we have a wood-heated sauna and a log hut at our guests’ use.

In landscape as well as etymology, Mustarinda is related to the numerous Black Mountains of the Anglo-Saxon world and the German Schwarzwald. A model of sorts for the Mustarinda Association has been the Black Mountain College artist community that was active in North Carolina in the United States in the 1940’s and 1950’s. In Schwarzwald, Martin Heidegger wrote a large part of his philosophical works.

Artists, researchers and thinkers have always from time to time felt the need to escape metropolitan life for shorter or longer periods of time in a suitable natural environment. In the cases of Black Mountain College and Heidegger, such hermitage has lead to significant advances in arts and philosophy.

The dark hills of Kainuu provide a perfect environment for thought and concentration. With Mustarinda, we want to create an inspiring and functional working environment, as well as a meeting point where thoughts and feelings can be shared in a stimulating atmosphere.

We are currently compiling a library of arts, ecology for our guests at Mustarinda including film, music and literature. We do not, however, want to influence our guests too much by providing them with material of a particular kind, as we want them to create their own personal relationships with the environment.

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