Old Church of Petäjävesi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Church of Petäjävesi

The Petäjävesi Old Church is built from 1763 to 1764 wooden church in the Finnish municipality of Petäjävesi . In 1994 she was in the UNESCO the list World Heritage added.

The architecture of the church combines elements of the Renaissance with older Gothic influences and the formal language of Finnish wooden architecture. Based on the model of the central buildings of the Renaissance, the wooden church has a floor plan in the form of a Greek cross with arms approx. 17 meters long and 7 meters wide. The roof of the church with its octagonal dome has Gothic elements and imitates the brick vaults of stone churches.

As early as 1728, the residents of Petäjävesi, which at that time belonged to the Jämsä parish , were given permission to build their own chapel so that they would not have to travel the long way to Jämsä to go to church. The Church of Petäjävesi was finally built between 1763 and 1765. The location chosen was a small peninsula on an isthmus between the Jämsänvesi and Petäjävesi lakes. This made it easy to get to the church - by boat in summer and across the ice in winter. The builder of the wooden church was Jaakko Klemetinpoika Leppänen. In 1821, under the direction of his grandson Erkki Leppänen, the free-standing bell tower was built on the west side. In 1867 the new, also wooden church of Petäjävesi was completed less than a kilometer away. Twelve years later the old church was abandoned and threatened to deteriorate. After the Austrian art historian Josef Strzygowski pointed out the historical value of the church, the first restoration work began in 1929. In 1994 the wooden church was included in the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage as an example of the unique, traditional East Scandinavian wooden church building tradition. Today the church is primarily a tourist attraction, and services are also held in summer.

  • Interior of the church

  • Octagonal dome roof

Web links

Commons : Petäjävesi Old Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 62 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  N , 25 ° 11 ′ 2 ″  E