Kerimäki Church
The kerimäki church is a church building of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in Kerimäki in South Savo in the Southeast Finland . It was built from 1844 to 1847 and is the largest wooden church in the world. The church has 3,400 seats and a total of 5,000 people.
The church of Kerimäki was completed on September 25, 1847 after three years of construction and was inaugurated on June 11, 1848 at Pentecost . The classicist domed church has the floor plan of a Greek cross and is divided into two floors inside by galleries . The free-standing stack of bells rests on a base made of solid masonry. Aleksandra Såltin made the altarpiece in 1890. The organ with twenty registers made by the organ factory in Kangasala was put into use in 1894.
The dimensions of the church (internal dimensions: 45 m length × 42 m width × 27 m height) arose from a misunderstanding, according to legend, according to which a Finn who emigrated to America and who became wealthy wanted to donate a church to his former home parish. The architect AF Granstedt designed the plans in feet and the European builder, who was used to calculating and building in meters, adopted their dimensions without conversion. However, this contradicts the original plans that have been preserved. The fact that the church should always be large is supported by the fact that the pastor Fredrik Neovius was of the opinion in the 1840s that the congregation should also be able to attend a service together on market days.
The church cannot be heated, which is why it is only used for services in summer. In 1953, a smaller, heated church was built next to the large church, where services are held in winter. However, the congregation gathers at Christmas in the large church, which is then only warmed by hundreds of candles and the visitors.
The church is visited by over 50,000 tourists every year and is also used in summer for events as part of the Savonlinna Opera Festival . In his novel The love of God makes blue , Arto Paasilinna relocates the new seat of heaven with 5,000 angels, because of their size, to the church of Kerimäki.
Church and bell stacks
organ
Interior view of the winter church
Web links
- Entry on Kerimäki Church in the National Monument Register of the Finnish Museum Authority
- Kerimäki parish website
- Kerimäki Church (German)
Coordinates: 61 ° 54 ′ 45.5 ″ N , 29 ° 17 ′ 6.2 ″ E