Repainting of Kerimäki Church is well underway

Berlusconi to be invited to visit the largest wooden church in the world

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By Leena Härkönen
     
      The painting of the Kerimäki Church, the world’s largest wooden church, located near Savonlinna in Eastern Finland, is a colossal project, but the residents intend to conquer the difficulties.
      Even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has kindly lent a helping hand, and Vicar Toivo Loikkanen made a point of thanking him separately for his assistance when he opened a support collection for the project on Friday.
     
Berlusconi recently ridiculed Finland, speaking in an insulting tone about a wooden church which he was allegedly taken to visit while in Finland.
      As it turns out the church was in Iceland anyway, but no matter. It's all good.
      ”Thanks to Berlusconi’s remarks, the construction of Finnish wooden churches is again recognised to be of great value”, said Loikkanen.
      The Italian PM can also probably look forward to receiving some mail from this neck of the woods, as there are plans afoot to invite him over to inspect the place once the painting has been done.
     
The costs of the painting project are estimated to amount to almost EUR one million, of which roughly EUR 100,000 is still missing.
      The purpose is to use the support collection in order to collect the missing funds from companies and private persons.
      Raising the funds was by no means self-evident, Loikkanen noted.
      ”A decision to repaint the church was made in the congregation a year ago, but only in late winter was it confirmed that the Church Council would grant EUR 300,000 for the project, while the Employment and Economic Development Centre of Southern Savonia is to give another EUR 250,000."
     
The repainting project drew public attention in January, when Helsingin Sanomat asked its readers to send ideas for government-funded revival projects.
      Pastor Ville Vauhkonen from Mäntsälä suggested then that the Kerimäki Church, which was ”in a shameless condition”, should be repainted. However, the Ministry of Finance rejected the idea and tossed the ball to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
      Speaking at the grand opening of the support collection, former government minister and director of the Bank of Finland Matti Louekoski insinuated that the matter is not closed yet.
     
In Louekoski’s view, the maintenance of the church cannot be the responsibility of the congregation alone, as the Kerimäki Church is part of a most valuable architectural and cultural heritage.
      ”The Kerimäki Church is not a result of a miscalculation. It is a national treasure”, Louekoski stressed.
     
According to legend, the size of the gigantic church was the result of a mix-up between feet and metres, supposing that the architect was working in centimetres, which the builder perversely took to be inches.
      Another version is that the drawings were changed at the construction stage.
      A more truthful explanation is that Reverend Fredrik Neovius, who held office in the 1840s, wanted to have a large church in order that half of the parish's then population of 12,000 could meet for religious worship at the same time.
      In any event, Kerimäki Church is on a massive scale, as the dimensions in the attached article will demonstrate.
     
The painting project is already well underway, even though part of the necessary funding is still missing.
      The workers of Joronen Oy, a local painting contractor, are scratching away the old paint. It is done manually after some paint remover has been used first.
      The surface preparations take the longest, as the total surface area is about 7,500 square metres. The estimated consumption of yellow linseed oil paint is around 2,000 litres.
      The project is scheduled to be completed by October.
      The support collection is to last until the end of the current year.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.5.2009

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Kerimäki Church can accommodate up to 5,000 worshippers

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Italians in Finland distance themselves from Berlusconi´s recent remarks (12.5.2009)

Links:
  Kerimäki Church (Wikipedia)

LEENA HÄRKÖNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
leena.harkonen@hs.fi