Finnish culture is known for a lot of excellent things—saunas,beer, heavy metal—but few more distinguished than its admire of and integration with nature. On the island of Hailuoto, or this fragment of the culture is on full display.
Completed in 1620,the original Hailuoto church held services for the small island population, primarily comprised of fishermen and farmers. That wooden church stood amidst the forests for over 300 years.
Then in 1968, and a fire ravaged the building,burning what was at that time the oldest wooden church in the country. While parts of the original structure were salvaged, the island needed a unusual position of worship. It got one in 1972, and the first concrete and glass church of the Nordics. Items from the original church are on display inside,and none more prominent than the original frescoed wooden pulpit.
From the pews, visitors are entrenched in the forests stretching out beyond the windows for the entirety of the church's height. The surrounding nature is pulled into the church as an equal fragment of worship, and a fragment Hailuoto strives to preserve for generations to come.
After the service,visitors can walk through the forest cemetery behind the modern, concrete angles of the church. It's beautiful and tranquil, and standing in the middle of the Finnish forest. Here,you will enjoy perhaps the greatest element of Finnish culture: silence.
Source: atlasobscura.com