The Finnish Cultural Heritage Foundation was established in 1986 with the objective of preserving and managing historically and architecturally valuable cultural landscapes, buildings and collections of valuable objects. Founders included, among others, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland as well as a number of cultural, municipal and regional organisations.

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SITES OF THE FOUNDATION
In addition to Brinkhall, the Finnish Cultural Heritage Foundation owns the ancient Lammintalo building in Sammatti, where Elias Lönnroth, who compiled the Kalevala epos, lived in his old age, and the Haukkavuori hill in the Rautjärvi parish. On the hill there is, chiselled in the bedrock, an old demarcation of the border designated by the Nystad (Uusikaupunki) Peace in 1721. These sites have come to the Foundation’s possession through donations and testaments. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities has declared them nationally significant cultural milieus.

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The aim of the Foundation in maintaining and developing its sites is to preserve their genuine physical and spiritual heritage; to create a vital atmosphere and activities; and to spread knowledge about the Finnish cultural heritage. The sites are not museums but, rather, venues for cultural events and other related activities. The sites are rented for events of many different kinds.

In other European countries, too, there are similar organisations. Some of them have grouped themselves under the auspices of Europa Nostra, an organisation contributing to the development of heritage-related policies at EU level. The British National Trust was an important model when establishing the Foundation.