The Old Church and the adjacent cemetery
The Old Church is the oldest existing church in Helsinki.
It was designed by Carl Ludwig Engel and was consecrated on
17 December 1826. It holds about 1,200 persons.
The church was built of wood because it was only intended
for temporary use. The decision had been made to tear down
the Ulrika Eleonora Church at the present-day Senate Square
and to build a new Cathedral on the north side of the square.
It took about twenty years to finish this project, however.
By the time the Cathedral was consecrated in 1852, the city
had grown so much that it needed two churches - the Cathedral
and the Old Church.
Because it was not meant to be permanent, the Old Church
was not given bells. The year after the church was completed,
the Synod decided to tear down the Ulrika Eleonora Church
and to auction off its furnishings. The pulpit, pews, chandeliers,
altar frame and organ were moved to the Old Church. Only the
pulpit remains today.
Behind the altar the church initially had a gilded wooden
cross on a sky blue background designed by C.L. Engel. In
1854 it acquired an altarpiece by Robert Wilhelm Ekman showing
Jesus blessing the children. This painting was originally
intended for the Cathedral, but the tsar's representative
did not consider it suitable for this purpose and so it was
placed in the more modest Old Church.
 The
Old Church is adjacent to a cemetery where victims of the
1710 plague were buried. The park has consequently been referred
to as the Plague Park in popular usage. The 48 old tombstones
in the park date from 1790-1829. Significant monuments include
a crypt which C.L. Engel designed for the merchant Johan Sederholm
and a memorial which J.A. Ehrenström designed for General
Reuterskiöld at the corner of Lönnrotinkatu and
Yrjönkatu.
No burials have taken place in the park since 1829, with
the exception of people who died in the capture of Helsinki
during the Finnish civil war in April 1918. The dark grew
monuments to the White and Germany soldiers who fell in the
war are located on the Bulevardi side of the park. The last
burial took place in 1919, when a grave for Finnish volunteers
who died in Estonia's war of independence was placed next
to Yrjönkatu. The grave has a red granite monument with
the Estonian cross of freedom.
http://www.helsinginseurakuntayhtyma.fi/
Photographs:
- The Old Church
Photo: Helsinki City Museum's photo archives
- The Old Church and its park in spring 2002.
Photographer: Mika Lappalainen, Helsinki City Information
Office.
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