Matti Åkerblom ( Pärnä; 18 July 1740,

Eräjärvi Eräjärvi is a former municipality of Finland. *Independent municipality until 1973. After 1973 part of Orivesi city (population ca. 9,000). *Distance to Orivesi 20 km, Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirk ...

— 10 June 1819,

Orivesi Orivesi () is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality official language is monoling ...

) was a notable

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

church designer and builder of the late 18th century, who also held the office of the regional

master builder A master builder or master mason is a central figure leading construction projects in pre-modern times (a precursor to the modern architect and engineer). Historically, the term has generally referred to "the head of a construction project in the ...

of the Province of Tavastia. Halikon kirkko Kellotapuli

Åkerblom first worked as a farm hand, but later decided to train as a carpenter, learning his trade under

Antti Piimänen Antti (Anders) Piimänen (1712, Turku — 16 October 1775, Turku) was a notable 18th-century Finnish church designer and master builder, considered the originator of the 'long church' (''pitkäkirkko'') style characteristic of much of the South W ...

. His training took unusually long, with the

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

and

journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that fie ...

ship stages each lasting five years, before he completed his master work, the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

of Halikko Church, in 1773. The master work had not been sanctioned by the

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

, but when completed it was nevertheless approved, thus gaining Åkerblom his mastership. Notable churches built by Åkerblom include

Nurmijärvi church Nurmijärvi church ( fi, Nurmijärven kirkko, sv, Nurmijärvi kyrka) is a wooden church in Nurmijärvi, built in 1793. The church was built by Matti Åkerblom. The bell tower was completed in 1795 and was built by Mats Åkergren. The church is th ...

Pihlajavesi Old Church , native_name_lang = fi , image = Pihlajaveden-kirkko-2.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Church pictured in 2007 , pushpin map = , pushpin label posit ...

, (completed a year before Åkerblom's master status), and , among others: in total, Åkerblom is known to have designed and built at least ten churches and five bell towers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Åkerblom, Matti 1740 births 1819 deaths People from Orivesi Finnish architects