A brief history of Metsähirvas

Would you like to learn more about the history of Metsähirvas? Metsähirvas has witnessed many events in Finnish history, from the time of Russian rule through the Lapland War to the present day.

Johanna Keränen's collection/Lusto

In 1902, Tsar Nicholas II ordered the construction of a Forest Warden's School on the Klemets property. Work began, and the first students entered the classroom in 1905. In addition to the school building, the gamekeeper's lodge, the headmaster's house, and the riding school were also completed. Finland gained independence under Russian rule in 1917; during this time, the school continued to operate almost unchanged. In 1929, the original wooden building burned down due to a heating failure.

The old wooden building was soon replaced by a brick school building. It was completed in 1931 and now serves as our hotel. After the war began in 1939, the school became a military hospital, and later the German headquarters was relocated there. The site was so highly valued by the German occupying forces during the war that, at the beginning of the Lapland War and as the Germans fled north, the upper classes demanded that this building be preserved for future generations. At the end of the war, the current hotel building served as a home for the Sixth Division, when the soldiers were finally able to resume their normal lives after difficult years. In front of the main entrance of the hotel, on the steps of the original school building, which was destroyed by fire, there is a memorial with the names of former students who became victims of the war. During the reconstruction of Rovaniemi, efforts were also made to develop the forest sector. The school was gradually transformed into an institution dedicated to forest management. At the same time, the Metsähallitus development unit was established. A massive expansion of the school building was completed in 1959, allowing the site to serve as the headquarters for the Northern Finland Forestry Sector for decades. In 2004, school activities were relocated to the city center. From 2009 to 2014, the site housed Avominne Oy's drug rehabilitation facility.

In 2015, Metsähirvas was taken over by a new owner: Sirafire Oy, a joint venture of three entrepreneurs. Ambitious development projects soon began on the property. Initially, overgrown forests were cleared to provide a view of the Kemijoki River from the main building. Then, a significant change was made to the heating system. A wood chip heating plant was built on the farm, replacing the previous oil heating plant. This replaced the heating of up to 160,000 liters of oil per year with the more sustainable use of wood chips. In 2017, a guesthouse with 26 rooms opened in the main building. In January 2018, construction of the hotel began in the old part of the main building. In December of the same year, Hotel Metsähirvas opened its doors to guests. The three entrepreneurial brothers are proud to highlight the history and environmental friendliness of their hotel. These themes include artwork in the hotel hallways and on the restaurant menu, including moose hunted by the owner, berries and mushrooms gathered by the staff, and homemade spruce syrup.