UPM-Biofore-Magazine-1-2017-ENG

TEXT VESA PUOSKARI   PHOTOGRAPHY LASSI KUJALA

A visit to the Verla groundwood and board mill museum is like travelling back in time to the late 19th century. The UNESCO World Heritage Site shows how efficient recycling has always been an integral part of the Finnish forest industry.

Vintage Verla: The cradle of Finnish industry

I t feels like time has stood still in the dimly lit machine hall of the historic Verla mill. The oldmachines seem to be waiting silently to be started up again. “The same kind of groundwood and boardmills operated in all countries in the northern coniferous forest zone. This mill largely survives in its original form – the neighbouring rapids were not strong enough to power larger-scale production, so it was never expanded,” explains Ville Majuri , Director of the VerlaMill Museum. Verla’s very first groundwoodmill was founded in 1872, but the wooden structures were destroyed in a fire just a few years later. The ruined building was replaced by a newwooden groundwoodmill, with a new boardmill added alongside. When fire destroyed the drying loft, architect Eduard Dippell designed the new brick buildings in 1893. The Verla mill is a small link in a long production chain that once made the Kymi River Valley the hub of the Finnish wood processing industry –

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