Piikkiön kirkko ja pappila

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Piikkiö church belongs to the small number of stone churches built in the 18th century, and its interior has been beautifully preserved. The Piikkiö parsonage, also built in the same century, includes a garden founded by parish priest Pietari Kalm, which reflects the interest in gardening and the development of cultivation during the Age of Utility of the 18th century.

The church, situated at the flank of a high rock, was built of grey stone in the middle of the 18th century. The east end of the church is three-sided, and on the north side there is a sacristy, while on the south wall, on the site of the traditional asehuone, there is a vestibule. At the west end there is a small kattoratsastaja. The nave is covered by a barrel vault made of boards, and the walls are smoothly plastered and painted white. Behind the altar fittings, which are supported by columns, there is a large drapery composition. The church's fixed furnishings are largely from the 18th century and have survived exceptionally well. Among other things, on the south wall there is a rare, long and narrow side gallery, accessed from the vestibule side. The pews are fitted with doors.

The bell tower on the rock to the north of the church was built in 1810. It was built in its main outlines according to a proposal drawn up at the Office of the Surintendent in Stockholm. In the churchyard, which has been extended on several occasions, is a yellow-limewashed mausoleum built of brick in 1819 by the owner of the Pussila manor. Of the mausoleum next to the south wall, built by merchant Jakob Bremer and designed by Turku town architect C.Fr. Schröder, only the grave slabs that were in its floor have survived.

The parsonage of Piikkiö, built in the late 18th century, is located north of the church. The parsonage is associated with a garden founded in the 1750s by Pietari Kalm.

History

According to tradition, Piikkiö church was built partly from stones taken from the ruins of the Kuusisto bishop's castle. The church, designed by architect Samuel Berner, was completed in 1752-1755. A church already stood on the same site in the Middle Ages, and after the present stone church was completed, the wooden church that preceded it was demolished.

A major interior restoration of the church was carried out in 1908 under architect Alex Nyström, when, among other things, the interior vault was panelled with tongue-and-groove boards and a black-and-white clinker brick floor was laid in the central aisle. The church roof was renewed in 1949 with cement tiles. In the restoration of 1964, designed by architect Heikki Havas, the original colour scheme of the altar fittings and pulpit was uncovered, as was the old vault boarding.

The parsonage, which probably already stood north of the church in the Middle Ages, was given a new main building in 1779. The building was repaired in 1868 and 1918. Pietari Kalm, a pioneer of Finnish horticulture, scientist and priest, founded the parsonage garden during his time as parish priest in the 1750s.