Iitti landmark bell tower will become a tiny holiday cabin

A bell tower salvaged from a former town hall in Iitti will be turned into a small holiday cabin, Yle reports. Tourism entrepreneur and local politician Markku Yli-Kaitala rescued the tower before the building is demolished.

The former town hall in Kausala, Iitti’s main settlement, is due to be demolished by the end of 2026. The clock tower has been a local landmark since 1999.

Yli-Kaitala plans to fit out the tower as a 12- to 13-square-metre cabin, which he has jokingly named the Iitti Suite. It will have solar panels for electricity, a wood-burning stove for heat and windows looking out over a lake. A working clock will also be installed, although the original clock mechanism has been put to other use.

The tower has been moved to a location that Yli-Kaitala has not yet disclosed. He expects the cabin to be ready for guests next spring. The project is expected to cost his family business thousands of euros, and possibly as much as 10,000 euros.

Yli-Kaitala said he has a personal connection to the former town hall, where he attended the opening of the building when it was a bank and later took part in local decision-making. He believes the tower’s history could help attract visitors and promote Iitti.