The Juva Museum is on the Partala demesne farm founded by Gustav I of Sweden in the 1550s. The existing classicistic manor was built in the late 19th century. The buildings were renovated and converted into a museum in 1991. While the museum collections are owned by the regional history and museum society of Juva, they have been turned over to the municipality of Juva, which also sees to running the museum.

The Juva Museum has two permanent exhibitions: the exhibition entitled ”Cows and us”, which was completed in summer 2007 and ”From a stone-age settlement to a modern-day population centre”, which was completed in 1992. In addition, there is a new temporary exhibition every summer.

Cows and Juva are closely entwined: stock farming has been an important livelihood in Juva as long as people have lived in the town, the dairy industry started up already in the 19th century and Juva is still an important town for dairy farming. Nowadays, the town specialised in producing organic milk.

The ”Cows and us” exhibition provides an in-depth view of the close relationship between man and cow that has continued for thousands of years and talks about the cow’s 9,000-year history alongside man. In addition to dairy farming, the exhibition also talks about the impact the turning point in agriculture that started in the 1960s had on stock farming and the life of today’s cow. Did you know that cows go for pedicures, too?

The second permanent exhibition, ”From a stone-age settlement to a modern-day population centre”, discusses the development that Juva has undergone. On display are hunting and fishing artefacts and maps that describe the growth of downtown Juva.

The Juva Karelian Museum is located in the same yard as the Juva Museum, in the community hall of the Partala demesne farm. The Juva Karelian Museum opened its doors in 1980. The collection is owned by Juvan karjalaiset ry and the municipality of Juva is responsible for its opening hours.

The museum has items that Karelian refugees and evacuees who settled in Juva brought with them from their homes in areas that were ceded to the Soviet Union after the Winter and Continuation Wars. Juva became home to Karelian refugees from several parishes that are now on the other side of the border. Juva was the main town that the refugees from Rautjärvi settled in and the majority of the museums’ artefacts are from that parish. On display are items related to crop and stock farming and furniture. The museum also has sizeable collections of textiles.