Community center

Valamo Monastery cherishes cultural diversity

The Cultural Center offers, among other things, exhibition spaces for the monastery's historical artifacts and temporary exhibitions. The Valamo Monastery Library, specializing in Orthodox culture and theology, serves all guests of the monastery as a place of worship for the brotherhood, researchers and students.

The Valamo Monastery has traditionally been a place of cultural activity. The old monastery was known as a peasant monastery, but the brotherhood's workshops painted icons, practiced photography and bookbinding. Manuscripts were copied in the cloisters. The Valamo Monastery began publishing printed books as early as the 1860s.

The cultural activity of Heinävesi Valamo began to rise when the Cultural Center building, designed by Antero Turki, was completed and inaugurated on 21–23 September 1984 at a festive seminar convened by Archbishop Paavali.

The Valamo Monastery library and archive also opened in the Cultural Center. Images and words found their place under the same roof.

The Cultural Center's conference facilities bring together both Orthodox and other communities that want the peaceful setting provided by the monastery for their events. Read more about renting conference facilities here.

Through the cultural activities of the Valamo Monastery, the Finnish Orthodox Church began to open up to society in the 1980s, and the monastery began to be referred to as a "window to Orthodoxy."

In 2006, the expansion of the Cultural Center was completed, which offers, among other things, exhibition spaces for the monastery's historical artifacts and changing exhibitions.