Michael's Church (Finnish: Mikaelinkirkko, Swedish: Mikaelskyrkan) is a church situated in central Turku. It is named after Archangel Michael and was finished in 1905. It dominates the western skyline of the city of Turku. It was designed by Professor Lars Sonck and is one of the most popular wedding churches in Turku, being able to seat 1,800 people. When Sonck won the competition for the church in 1894, he was only a 23-year-old architectural student. Michael's Church is older than Michael's parish. The parish only dates back to 1921.
Michael's church is a distinguished example of the neogothic style in architecture. It is a long church with three aisles, galleries and a multifaceted choir. In addition to the main entrance there are also doors at each corner of the church. The sacristy is situated behind the choir. The main spire rises to a height of 77 meters from the foundations.
The main building material of the walls of the church is red brick. The roof is made of grey green slate from Norway. However, the majority of the material used in the construction of the church are native materials from Finland. For the foundations, the stone steps, and the walls, natural stone was quarried not far from Turku.
Even before the construction work started, Sonck wanted to make considerable changes to his winning design, but the church council did not agree to the proposed changes and in the end only minor detail changes were made to the facade. As for the interior, however, Sonck got a much freer hand to make changes from his original drawings. This is clearly seen in the deviations from the style of the times: Jugend follows Gothic and Romantic Nationalism.
Interior design
Interior of St. Michael's Church
Max Frelander the architect, who worked as an assistant to Sonck, has contributed to the interior design. A rich Jugend ornamentation decorates both the interior, the staircases and the windows. The altar, the pulpit, the altar rail, and the window frame are all made of Finnish soapstone. The central motif of the altar is a cross, on which base there is a symmetrical carving of two serpents. Also on the corner level of the altar rail there are rings of twisting serpents. The top of the cross is ornamented with a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The Jugend windows of the choir, which depict Finnish pine, were destroyed in a bombing raid during the Finnish Winter War (1939–1940). The national romantic movement is particularly dominant in the design of the choir. Motifs from Finnish nature are associated with traditional Christian symbolism.
The original window paintings, which were destroyed during the Winter War, were by the artist Willy Baer. The new ones were obtained in 1953. These were designed and done by the artists Hilkka Toivola and Otso Karpakka. The principal subjects of these works of art that were made in the Paris glass painting studio of Jean and Pierre Gaudin, are "the Good Shepherd" and "Faith, Hope, and Charity". Along with the new windows the stylistic unity of the interior of the church disappeared. Consequently, in the 1950s other changes were made in the interior design of the church to match the Gothic exterior. First the decorative paintings of the choir and the arch of triumph were painted over, and later the wall paintings in the body of the church and the staircases. However, the original decorative pictures were restored in connection with the general repair work on the church that was carried out in 1964–65.
Michael's Church underwent a thorough renovation in the 1980s. First, an exterior repair work was carried out in 1984–85. The decayed exterior brick work and the roof were completely rebuilt. Reconditioning of the interior was done in 1985–87. First the sacristy of the church was returned to its original condition. After this came the main body of the church and the staircase. The ceiling and the interior wall surfaces were carefully cleaned of the grime of decades. The decorative designs were repaired and returned to their original paint finish or painted afresh. Floors were resurfaced with a new limestone finish. The acoustics of the church, which had proved a problem, was improved. In connection with this renovation work, a basic restoration of the 48 rank mechanical organ made in Kangasala in 1965 was also done. In 2002 the new organ with 52 ranks and 3633 pipes was built by the Swedish organ builders Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri[sv] AB.
The church bells have rung out from the main spire since 1931, and they were a gift from Edla and Hjalmar Aarnio. Reino Lehto made a gift to the church of the model ship hanging from the gallery. Kaarina Lehmussaari, lecturer in textiles, donated a new decorated altar cloth.
St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada, and one of the oldest churches in Toronto. It is located at 65 Bond Street in Toronto's Garden District. St. Michael's was designed by William Thomas, designer of eight other churches in the city, and was primarily financed by Irish immigrants who resided in the area. The cathedral has a capacity of 1600. John Cochrane and Brothers undertook the work on the stone and stucco ornamentation of the interior.
The Cathedral of St. Elizabeth, also called Saint Elizabeth Cathedral, is a Gothic cathedral in Košice. It is the largest church in Slovakia and one of the easternmost Gothic cathedrals in Europe.
The Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição is a church in the civil parish of Madalena, in the municipality of Lisbon.
Toulouse Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located in the city of Toulouse, France. The cathedral is a national monument, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Toulouse. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
The Église Saint-Augustin de Paris is a Roman Catholic church located at 46 boulevard Malesherbes in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The church was built between 1860 and 1871 by the Paris city chief architect Victor Baltard. It was the first church in Paris to combine a cast-iron frame, fully visible, with stone construction. It was designed to provide a prominent landmark at the junction of two new boulevards built during Haussmann's renovation of Paris under Napoleon III. The closest métro station is Saint-Augustin
St Francis Xavier Church (French: Église Saint-François-Xavier or Église Saint-François-Xavier-des-Missions-étrangères is a parish Roman Catholic church in the 7th arrondissement of Paris dedicated to Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missions. Built in the late 19th century, It gave its name to the nearby Metro station Saint-François-Xavier. It contains the tomb of Madeleine Sophie Barat, a French saint of the Catholic Church and founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, a worldwide religious institute of educators.It also known for its collection of Italian Baroque and Mannerist paintings, including a work by Tintoretto.
Martin's Church in Turku, Finland is the main church of Martin's parish, founded in 1921. The church was consecrated on the 450th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, on November 12, 1933. The designers of the church were the architects Totti Sora and Gunnar Wahlroos. The church represents architectural functionalism. Martin's church is a long church with three aisles with very narrow side aisles. The church has a functional and singular practicality of its own. The barrel-vaulting of the roof is one of the most outstanding features of the church. The altar, the pulpit, and the roof are notable features of architect Sora's work. On the top of the pulpit, the architect has placed a crown. The same theme is featured as a decoration to the hymn list table. The architects have clearly thought of the church as a royal court chamber and for this reason the basic construction is reminiscent of a basilica. The artist Aarre Aaltonen has made five decorative sculptures for the pulpit.
St Martin's Cathedral is a cathedral in Slovakia. It is located in the town of Spišská Kapitula and is the cathedral church of the Spiš diocese.
Korpilahti Church is a Lutheran church in Jyväskylä, Central Finland; the former municipality of Korpilahti was incorporated into Greater Jyväskylä in 2008. Korpilahti Church is almost 200 years old, dating back to 1827. The present structure is the third wooden church to have been built on that site.
Notre-Dame-de-Lorette is a Roman Catholic church located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, It was built between 1823 and 1836 in the Neo-classical architectural style by architect Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, in a neighbourhood known as the New Athens, for its many artistic and scholarly residents in the 19th century, including George Sand, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alexandre Dumas. While the exterior is classical and austere, the church interior is known for its rich collection of paintings, sculpture, and polychrome decoration.
Kallio Church is a Lutheran church in the Kallio district of Helsinki, Finland. It was designed by Lars Sonck and represents National Romanticism with Art Nouveau influences. The National Romantic style appears in the use of traditional Finnish materials and in the church's massive, gray granite body, as well as in nature-inspired colours and decorative motifs.
The Church of St. Apollinaire is located in New Town in Prague in the street Apolinarska on the hill called Vetrov. This Gothic church was built approximately between years 1360–1390. The church was established by Charles IV in 1362. Nowadays Roman Catholic Church is located here but it was administrated also by the Chemin Neuf community. The church is protected as a cultural heritage since 1958.
Tisselskog Church belongs to the Steneby-Tisselskogs parish in the Diocese of Karlstad, Sweden. The church is located on a hill about 2 km (1.2 mi) north of Lake Råvarpen, a part of the Dalsland Canal. Approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) south of the church is a former clergy house, built in 1935. In the south part of the grave yard is a mourge built in the 1940s and a storage house built in 1995.
St. Michael's Church in Jircháře, Prague - New Town near the National Theatre, specifically the New Town street, which is called v Jirchářích. It is the seat of Czech, Slovak and English congregation of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech Republic. Its architectural style is not uniform due to alterations in different periods and styles. It is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.
The Basilica minor of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a Late Gothic three-nave Catholic church located in the town of Kežmarok in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia.
St. Castulus church is a Gothic church with Romanesque and Baroque elements. It is located on the Castulus square, in Old town near Convent of Saint Agnes. It is the only church in the Czech Republic consecrated to Saint Castulus.
The Saint Quentin's Church or Sint-Kwintenskerk is a Roman Catholic church located at the Naamsestraat in Leuven, Belgium. Its exterior is mainly Gothic with a Baroque entrance portal. The interior contains Baroque choir stalls and altars. The church is named after the Saint Quentin, who is regarded in the Catholic faith as a protector against a wide range of contagious diseases.
Vaxholm Church is a church in central Vaxholm, Sweden. The chapel is a single-nave building built in the Neoclassical style. It was completed in 1803 according to drawings by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz and Olof Tempelman. It replaced an earlier wooden church in Vaxholm.
Vihti Church is a Lutheran church built in 1772 in Vihti, Finland. The church is located in Vihti church village on Hartanmäki Hill. Vihti church was constructed according to Antti Piimänen's plans. The church has been ravaged by fire twice and both times it was reconstructed. Vihti church is also sometimes referred to as Gustav's Church after Gustav III of Sweden.
St. Michael's Church in Kirkkonummi is a gothic, medieval stone church in the Finnish municipality of Kirkkonummi. The church was built somewhere between 1400 and 1490. The original medieval brick walls are still to be seen in the eastern part of the church.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
