FI-2194777 Kerimäki Church, Finland

In the small Finnish village of Kerimäki there is a church which is the largest wooden church in the world.  Kerimäki Church was designed by Anders Fredrik Granstedt and built between 1844 and 1847.  It has a length of 45 metres (148 ft), a width of 42 m (138 ft), a height of 37 m (121 ft) and a seating capacity of more than 3,000. Altogether, there can be 5,000 people at any one time in the church.

Because of its size it was almost impossible to heat the Kerimäki Church in wintertime. So services during the cold period would be held in a smaller "winter church" (built in 1953) which can accomodate about 300 people.

This excessively large church was built deliberately according to the original plans of the local residents. At the time when the church was being built, there were 12,000 residents in Kerimäki Parish so perhaps the expectation was that on any given Sunday, half the people should be in church?  . Believers came to worship in Kerimäki church from the entire region, some crossing the lake in kirkkovene (church long ship).

This postcard came from Liesel (23 September 2014) Postcrossing.