Sodankylä Old Church (also known as the Lapp Church; ; ) is a 17th-century wooden church located near the

Kitinen River Kitinen is a river in Finland. It flows for , making it the fourth longest river in Finland. The river flows through the municipalities of Kittilä, Pelkosenniemi, and Sodankylä in the Finnish region of Lapland. The Porttipahta Reservoir and a h ...

in the Sodankylä municipality in Lapland,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

.Söderholm 2005, p. 76. The church is one of the oldest preserved wooden churches in Finland. It is one of twelve surviving block-pillar churches in Finland and Sweden and has been described as the "best preserved in its original form in Finland". Both church and its yard area are classified by the

Finnish Heritage Agency The Finnish Heritage Agency (, ), previously known in English as the National Board of Antiquities, preserves Finland's material cultural heritage: collects, studies and distributes knowledge of it. The agency is a cultural and research institutio ...

to the most nationally significant built cultural environments. It has a capacity of about 200 and is used for weddings and smaller events.

History

In 1687, before the start of church construction, the

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

had granted a place called Skaitma, opposite the then village settlement of Sodankylä, as the location of the church. Construction work was started in the fall of 1688 at the earliest, with King

Charles XI of Sweden Charles XI or Carl (; ) was List of Swedish monarchs, King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of History of Sweden, Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721). He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden ...

paying for the construction work. In the same year, Sodankylä was founded as a as part of the Lapland parish of

Kemi Kemi (; ; ; ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately from the city of Tornio and the Finland–Sweden border, Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and t ...

. The building was finally completed in 1689. When Sodankylä officially became an independent parish in 1747, the former chapel become the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of an exceptionally large area. The old church fell out of use in 1859 after the new

Sodankylä Church The Sodankylä Church (; ) is the 19th-century grey stone church located in the Sodankylä municipality in Lapland, Finland. The building was designed by , and it was completed in 1859. It is located about 100 meters from Sodankylä's old church ...

was completed. The church slowly began to fall into disrepair, until in the late 19th century the historical value of the church was understood. The first restoration of the church was carried out in 1926. The church was renovated between 1979 and 1980 and again between 1992 and 1995 by the

. Dignitaries such as

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

s were buried under the wood floor of the church according to the custom prevailing in the 18th century. The dead are still resting under the floorboards. A two-week-old baby boy of vicar Abraham Cajaner is preserved to this day by

mummification A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

, resting next to his two parents.

Structure

Stylistically, the church represents the form tradition of Ostrobothnian wooden churches. The church has a gabled roof and no tower. The

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

is connected to the north wall of the church as a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

, as is the vestibule to the west end. The interior is unlined and unpainted. The walls are reinforced with Ostrobothnian type block pillars. Interesting details are the roof ridge and

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

s of the roof, which represent a layering of styles going back to the Middle Ages. The

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

in the interior dates from 1703, and the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

is separated from the rest of the church by a modest rail. The church has a

gabled roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its roof ridge, ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The roof pitch, p ...

, without a

roof truss A roof (: roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempera ...

. This is the case in the main room itself, as well as in the vestibule and sacristy. In addition to the ridge beam, there are eight

purlin A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, purling, perling) is a longitudinal, horizontal, structural member in a roof. In traditional timber framing there are three basic types of purlin: purlin plate, principal purlin, and common purlin. P ...

s in the main room, four on each side. In the vestibule and the sacristy there is only a ridge beam. All roofs have planking on the rafters. The planking is done transversely in the direction of the roof ridge.Pettersson 1984, p. 20. The current planking is from the 1992 repair, and it was made using the same working methods as the original, i.e. the boards were not sawn, but were split by hand.

References

Sources

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External links

Sodankylä Old Church
at Sodankylän seurakunta (in Finnish)
Sodankylä Old Church
at Visit Sodankylä (in English)
Sodankylä Old Church
at SpottingHistory (in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sodankyla Old Church 17th-century establishments in Finland Buildings and structures in Lapland (Finland) Churches completed in 1689 Historic sites in Finland Sodankylä Tourist attractions in Lapland (Finland) Wooden churches in Finland

History

Structure

See also

References

Sources

External links