Local heritage house Röytty

The local heritage house Röytty, located next to Taipalsaari Church, is an old military manor and inn. Today, Röytty serves as a museum with its barns and buildings.

Röytty’s house was built, it is believed, at the end of the 1600s by the men of Taipalsaari, Savitaipale, and Joutseno. The first mention of Röytty as a military manor dates back to 1680. Röytty briefly served as the residence of lieutenants in the Swedish army until the entire Taipalsaari area was transferred to Russia under the Treaty of Turku in 1743. After that, the house became an inn. Its location at the crossroads of an ancient ice road and water and land transport routes brought visitors to Röytty’s inn. Röytty served as a resting place for travelers, where both passengers and horses were cared for.

In the 1930s, many of Finland’s inns became part of history, and the inn operations at Röytty were discontinued in 1937. The last innkeeper was Viktor Rikkonen, and the property was transferred to Taipalsaari Municipality in 1988 by his nephew, Veikko Rikkonen. The municipality restored the house to serve as a wayside inn museum, following the guidelines of the South Karelia Museum and the Finnish National Board of Antiquities, while respecting its authenticity. In the summer of 1996, the Röytty Local Heritage House, with its exhibitions, was opened to the public.