Temppeliaukio Church
The Temppeliaukio Church ( Finnish. Temppeliaukion kirkko , Schw. Tempelplatsens kyrka ) east of the Hietaniemi cemetery is a modern rock church in the Etu-Töölö district of the Finnish capital Helsinki , about one kilometer west of the main train station . It is considered an outstanding example of Finnish architecture of the 1960s and can be assigned to late Expressionism .
The church was designed by architects (and brothers) Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. It was built into a granite rock , but daylight comes in through the copper roof with 180 windows. The five to eight meter high church walls are made of uncut rock. The church has a height of 13 m to the top of the dome.
The organ was built in 1975 by Veikko Virtanen. It has 43 stops on four manuals and a pedal .
In addition to being used for church services by the evangelical parish of Taivallahti (Taivallahden seurakunta) , the church is regularly used for concerts and is a tourist attraction (around 500,000 visitors annually).
history
As early as the 1930s, there were first ideas to build a church on the Temple Mount in Helsinki. Two architecture competitions were organized. In the first competition, the committee was dissatisfied with the entries and no one received a prize. In 1936, JS Sirén won the second competition. Before the project could begin, it had to be abandoned as a result of the Second World War and the Winter War in Finland. In 1961, almost 20 years after the war, another architectural competition was organized, which the brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen won. Due to the economic situation, however, construction work could not begin until 1968. The first name of the church was Taivallahden kirkko, since 1971 it has been called Temppeliaukion kirkko.
Interior view with gallery and organ
Copper roof and 180 windows from the inside
Hardly recognizable as a church from the outside: the rock into which the structure was cut
Detail entrance area
The organ
literature
Web links
Coordinates: 60 ° 10 ′ 23 ″ N , 24 ° 55 ′ 31 ″ E