The Kerimäki Church ( fi, Kerimäen kirkko, sv, Kerimäki kyrka) in

Kerimäki Kerimäki is a former municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with the town of Savonlinna on January 1, 2013. It is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Southern Savoni ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, is the largest wooden church in the world. However,

St. George's Cathedral, Georgetown St. George's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana. The wooden church reaches a height of . It is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Guyana, Bishop of Guyana. St. George's was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfiel ...

located in

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

is taller, at 43.5 metres (143 ft). The

Almaty Cathedral The Ascension Cathedral (russian: Вознесенский собор ''Vosnesenskiy sobor'', kk, Вознесенск кафедралы шіркеуі ''Voznesensk kafedraly shirkeýi''), also known as Zenkov Cathedral, is a Russian Orthodox ca ...

, at 56 meters, is even taller.

History

Designed by Anders Fredrik Granstedt (fi) and built between 1844 and 1847, the church has a length of , a width of , a height of and a seating capacity of more than 3,000. Altogether, there can be 5,000 people at a time in the church. It has been rumoured that the size of the church was the result of a miscalculation when it was built (supposedly the architect was working in centimetres, which the builder misunderstood to be inches, which are 2.54 times larger). Further studies, however, have shown that the church was actually intended to be as big as it is, so it could easily accommodate a half of the area's population at the same time. During wintertime, services are held in a smaller "winter church" (built in 1953, re-modelled in 199

, since the main building has no heating.

References

External links

Information on the church
Wooden churches in Finland Buildings and structures in South Savo Churches completed in 1847 1847 establishments in the Russian Empire Lutheran churches in Finland {{Finland-church-stub