The Kerimäki Church in Kerimäki

Kerimäki

Kerimäki is a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, is the largest wooden church in the world.

History

Designed by Anders Fredrik Granstedt and built between 1844 and 1847, the church has a length of 45 metres (147.6 ft), a width of 42 m (137.8 ft), a height of 37 m (121.4 ft) and a seating capacity of more than 3,000. Altogether there can be 5,000 people at a time in the church.

It has been rumoured that the size of the church was the result of a miscalculation when it was built (supposedly the architect was working in centimetres, which the builder took to be inches, which are 2.54 times larger). Further studies, however, have shown that the church was actually intended to be as big as it is, so it could easily accommodate a half of the area's population at the same time.

During wintertime, services are held in a smaller "winter church" (built in 1953), since the main building has no heating.

External links

• Information on the church