Kristuskyrkan (Church of Christ) is a Christian

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in Helsinki, Finland, located in the central district of Etu-Töölö (Swedish: ) at the corner between Fänrik Ståls Street and Apollonkatu Street. It was built at the beginning of the twentieth century and it is part of the Swedish Methodist Church of Finland.

Architecture and history

The architectural structure follows simple, austere vertical lines and is a good example of Finnish

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style. It was built between 1926 and 1928 according to the designs and the directions of the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Atte V. Willberg to whom the realization of the church was commissioned. The church was consecrated officially with its inaugural mass on 23.9.1928. The 59-meter

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

of the church with its

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

is a distinctive feature of the skyline of the city.

Rose window

In line with the characteristic of

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

, a large

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

is present on the church facade above the main entrance. The beautiful glass-work designed by the artist Lennart Rafael Segerstråle (1892–1975) is titled "Praise to Creation" (in Swedish ). In it the spiritual praise to God's creation is epitomized by the figure of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

playing the

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

surrounded by floral and vegetable motifs. A circular staircase accessible from the porch's right side leads to the upper

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

inside the church, from which it is possible to admire at a closer distance the intricate design of the glazed window.

The gallery's fresco

Upon entering the church, passing the vestibule (), and looking up to the ceiling of the gallery, it is possible to admire the

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

painted by Carl August Henry Ericsson (1898–1933). The work symbolizes the tree of spiritual life whose branches extend all over the world. Around the central figure of the angel, twelve

doves Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

are seen flying spreading their wings, crowned by aureoles ( halos). They represent the

twelve apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

with the divine message of salvation for the whole world.

Pipe organ

Located on the upper loggia overlooking the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, the

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

has 15 stops. The instrument was manufactured in the city of

Kangasala is a town in Finland, located in the Pirkanmaa region. It lies to the east of the regional capital, Tampere. The population of Kangasala is approximately , while the Tampere metropolitan area, metropolitan area has a population of approximat ...

by the Kangasala Urkutehdas and designed by the Finnish organist Asko Rautioaho who designed the instrument in such a way that the stained glass window of the façade located behind the organ itself emerges from the profile of the musical instrument and is also visible from the inside of the church.

Gallery

Image:Stained glass azure.png Image:Kristuskyrkan dörr.png Image:Street_leading_to_Kristuskyrkan_in_September_2015.jpg Image:Organo e rosone.jpg Image:Lato.png Image:Abside_con_croce_e_altare_ligneo.png Image:Dettaglio.png Image:Germoglio.jpg Image:Affresco angelo.jpg Image:Finestre gotiche.jpg Image:Finestre_diagonale.jpg

References

{{Helsinki Cityscape 20th-century Methodist church buildings Churches in Helsinki Methodist congregations in Finland Töölö