Driving out of Helsinki through the picturesque countryside where Ainola, the former home of the world famous composer Jean Sibelius and his family is located. Ainola was named after his wife Aino. Sibelius built his house in 1904, on a pine-clad hill near Lake Tuusula approximately 30 kilometers from the city. The site has a spacious view over fields to the lake beyond. This is the exact place that Sibelius needed so he could concentrate on his music – a peaceful and quiet surrounding away from the diversion of the city.

Ainola was designed by architect Lars Sonck. Originally a log house, the house emerged in a new guise in 1911 when the walls were boarded over and the shingle roof exchanged for a tiled one. At first, only the bottom floor was used as a residence, but as the family grew, bedrooms were installed on the upper floor as well. When the Sibelius family moved to Tuusula they had three daughters and another two were born later.

After Jean Sibelius died, Aino Sibelius lived at Ainola until her death in 1969. Their daughters sold their estate to the Finnish Government in 1972. The Ainola Foundation was founded in connection with this transferral to take care of Ainola and the grave of Jean and Aino Sibelius, which is located in the garden. Ainola was opened to the public in 1974 as a museum. It has been retained in the condition that it was when Aino Sibelius was still alive.

The interiors and furnitures are a distinctive combination of inherited items, gifts and things bought new by the Sibelius couple. Aino Sibelius herself designed the furniture and also drew up the plans for the Ainola sauna. There are also ceramics by one of their daughters, artist Heidi Sibelius-Blomstedt, as well as furniture designed by her husband, architect Aulis Blomstedt. The large collections of paintings includes work by artist friends such as Eero Jarnefelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Pekka Halonen and Oscar Parviainen.