Kokemäen kirkonseutu

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Kokemäki church village, Tulkkila, located on the south bank of the Kokemäenjoki, has largely retained the traditional church-village character around the church, formed by schools, shop and residential buildings that date mainly from the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

The stone church of Kokemäki, completed in 1786, together with its churchyard, parish storehouses and stone bier houses, forms the centre of the Tulkkila village. Along Tulkkilantie, which runs past Kirkonmäki parallel to the Kokemäenjoki, and along Kirkkopolku, which encircles the churchyard, stands a long, continuous row of wooden residential and commercial buildings that date from the Kokemäki church-village phase.

Crossing the Kokemäenjoki at Tulkkila is a three-span reinforced concrete arch bridge, 90.6 metres long, built in 1918. It is one of the museum bridges selected by Tiehallinto. The folk school in Tulkkila, built in 1877, has survived as part of the cultural history of the church village.

The grey stone sacristy, located on the north side of the museum bridge and surrounded by the churchyard, is a reminder of the shrine dedicated to Pyhä Maria, which once served as the main church of Satakunta. The sacristy, completed in the 1550s, has three round-arched decorative niches in the brick upper part of its north gable, with a kulmatiili band below them; its interior is vaulted with a simple star vault. Built into the west wall of the sacristy is a grey stone burial chapel from the early 19th century, which belonged to the Kilkku virkatalo in Tulkkila. In addition, there are two other burial chapels from the 19th century near the sacristy.

The antiquity of the site is indicated by Bronze Age and Iron Age artefacts found near the churchyard.

History

The village of Tulkkila was situated at a central point in the densely settled riverside landscape of the Kokemäenjoki, already in the Middle Ages. On the northern side of the river, next to the church, there were three farms in the 1560s, and within sight were the Kokemäenjoki royal manor and the Teljä trading place.

The first known wooden church, linked to a stone sacristy completed in the 1550s, burned in the summer of 1640. A new church was built in 1642. The old church was demolished in 1845, except for the sacristy. A bell tower has also stood in the churchyard, which is enclosed by a stone wall.

The old church was replaced by a stone church completed in 1786 on the southern bank of the Kokemäenjoki. The long church with a western tower was designed in the Intendant's Office in Sweden. The church was extended into a cruciform church in 1886, according to drawings prepared by provincial architect C.J. von Heideken. A cemetery was established around the church in the early 19th century and was enlarged in the 1830s and 1860s. The stone parish storehouse was built in 1836 and converted into an agricultural museum in 1936. The stone mortuary was completed in the 1880s.

The engineer M. Muoniovaara designed a new bridge to replace the Tulkkila bridge destroyed in the Civil War. It was built by Constructor Oy, using red prisoners from the locality as labour. The bridge piers were built of ashlar stone. The bridge was completed in 1918.