Sea Monsters

Welcome to explore the monstrously fun Sea Monsters exhibition for the whole family!

The exhibition is introduced by the magnificent Carta Marina sea chart from 1539, a time when the world was thought to be flat and the seas were believed to be teeming with all sorts of strange creatures. In this playful exhibition, mythical sea monsters also lead visitors to the facts of maritime navigation.

The Sea Monsters exhibition consists of impressively sized monster figures, including the Cold-Blooded Holothurian, the Giant Sea Serpent, and the misunderstood Sweet Squid Ka. The exhibition also features Dr. Pontoppidan’s Museum of Curiosities. Additionally, visitors can search for whale lice and peek into the primordial sea through a diving bell. The exhibition is located in the brick Kruununmakasiini building at Forum Marinum.

Produced by the National Museum of Finland, the exhibition has previously been displayed in Kotka at the Maritime Museum of Finland and also in Mariehamn at the Åland Maritime Museum.

The exhibition is created by writer Laura Ruohonen and illustrator Erika Kallasmaa. Ruohonen and Kallasmaa are internationally known and awarded, especially for their poetry picture books. The spirit of poetry picture books is also conveyed in the Sea Monsters exhibition, where poems and playful sea monster characters come together.

“The exhibition’s architecture is childlike, but the unknown lurking beneath the surface fascinates the human mind regardless of age or era. A medieval sailor might have pondered the same beliefs in their mind as today’s children do as part of the museum experience. The sea preserves its eternal mysteries,” says Hanna Niittymäki, exhibition designer at Forum Marinum.