Office of the President of the Republic of Finland
Press release 36/2022
1 June 2022
President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö and Mrs Jenni Haukio with their family arrive at Kultaranta, the President’s summer residence, on Friday, 3 June 2022. During the summer, the President of the Republic works mainly at Kultaranta. The biggest event of the early summer is the Kultaranta Talks, hosted by President Niinistö on 12–13 June.
The City of Naantali will host a welcoming reception for the presidential couple at the marina (Kilta jetty) on Sunday evening, 5 June at 6.30 p.m. At the same time, President Niinistö and Mrs Haukio will also meet the public.
This year, a sculpture exhibition Shapes of nature, organised in cooperation with the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, will be on display in the Kultaranta park. The exhibition opens on Wednesday, 8 June and features works inspired by the shapes of plants and fruit and the use of natural materials. The theme of last year’s sculpture exhibition Encounters was animal figures from the beginning of the last century to the present day.
A park concert of the Naantali Music Festival will be held at Kultaranta on Friday, 17 June. The outdoor concert will feature music on the themes of nature and animals performed by Club For Five and the Saint-Saëns suite The Carnival of the Animals, narrated by Seela Sella. Further information can be found on the Naantali Music Festival website.
During the summer, the public can visit the Kultaranta park and the sculpture exhibition on Fridays from 6 pm to 8 pm. In addition, Visit Naantali organises guided tours of the park area. Further information on the guided tours and exceptions to opening hours can be found on the Visit Naantali website.
Kultaranta, located on Naantali’s Luonnonmaa Island, has been the summer residence of the President of the Republic of Finland since 1922. Construction of the main building, a granite castle-like structure completed in 1916, was commissioned by industrialist Alfred Kordelin and designed by architect Lars Sonck. The Kultaranta residence lies in extensive parkland and has a garden devoted to the growing of flowers and vegetables. Kultaranta’s main building and park will be refurbished by 2025 and will accordingly be out of service in 2023–24. Further information about the refurbishment can be found on the website of the Office of the President of the Republic of Finland.