Kempeleen Old Church

The Old Church of Kempele is one of the 11 remaining valuable pillar churches in Finland.

The church was built in1689-1691. The church is one of the oldest wooden churches in the country. This west-towered buttressed church is one of the smallest of its type - it has only one pair of pillars. On the north side of the church is the sacristy, the priest's dressing room, and on the south side is the former armoury, now used as a bridal room. The church's 26-metre-high tower has also served as a navigational aid for sailors.

The walls and vaults of the church are decorated with woodcuts painted by Mikael Toppelius and Emanuel Granberg in 1785-1786 and 1795. Of these, the paintings of the Annunciation above the main entrance and of the Annunciation to the left of the nave, as seen from the main door, have been identified by the National Board of Antiquities as some of the most beautiful works of ecclesiastical art of the 17th century.

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