Medieval church of Kaarlela

Kaarlela church was built in the 1460’s, the precise year being unknown. It is one of the seven medieval stone churches in Ostrobothnia.

At the end of the 18th century the building underwent great changes according to drawings authorized by King Gustav III and was given the present cruciform shape.

The work was supervised by the prominent vicar Anders Chydenius, one of the most outstanding representatives of the Finnish liberalistic era. His picture is beside the pulpit.

The year after, work was completed on the bell tower, which at height of 31,5 m is well below that which was planned. Even so, the church is a fine example of the neoclassic style of the end of the 18th century.

The interior was repaired in 1932–34 and in 1954–55, the latter occasion being under the supervision of the architect Erik Kråkström, who also designed the parish hall on the south of the church. The parish hall was renovated in 2005-06.

The three part altarpiece with motives Jesus in Gethsemane, The Birth of Jesus and The Ascension of Jesus, is signed Alexandra Frosterus-Såltin 1902. Behind it is the old altar wall of 1749 of a famous church painter, Johan Backman.

The pulpit, one of the oldest in Finland, was brought from Sweden in 1622 by the newly appointed vicar Jacob Skepperus.

The present organ, the second in the church, was built by the Danish organ builder Frobenius, and installed in 1958. It has 35 stops.

There is a coat-of-arms in memory of Simon Daniel Baron, Carolean officer and chief of the Ostrobothnian infantry regiment.

One of the oldest pauper man’s statues in Finland is preserved inside the church. The pauper man of 1784 has represented Finland widely in expositions for example in the USA, Japan and Sweden. The pauper man still in use, which you meet at the entrance, is from the 1840’s.

On the northern side of the church, above the door, on the outer wall, there is still a mark after the shelling by Russian artillery during the war of Independence in 1918.

Near by the church there is the graveyard for honoured soldiers deceased in the Second World War. Finland was the only country which brought her war-deceased men to their home graveyards.

South-west of the church, beneath of it, you find a meadow named Tarharanta, where the peasants of Kaarlela conquered the cavalry of Clas Fleming in a peasant uprising called Cudgel War in 1595.