Ähtärin kirkonseutu

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Ähtäri church is a rare example of a modern church building from the 1930s in Ostrobothnian church architecture. The church dominates the old core of the village centre in terms of the landscape, and the commercial and retail buildings there have survived in their appearance from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ähtäri church stands on Hankolankangas, higher than the surrounding terrain. The present church, completed in 1937 and designed by architect Bertel Liljeqvist, is the fourth on the same site. The tower of the whitewashed long church rises to a height of 54 metres. The altarpiece, painted in 1906 by Professor Vilho Sjöström, comes from the previous church, which burned down, and depicts the Sermon on the Mount, with the people of Ähtäri as its models, set against the scenery of Lake Ähtärijärvi. The ceiling and wall paintings in the church were made by the artist Antti Salmenlinna.

The church square is bordered by the parish storehouse, a boat shed built for church boats, and the blessing chapel from 1963, drawn by architect Touko Saari, which stands in the cemetery. The War of Independence memorial in the churchyard was designed by Alpo Sailo, and the Winter War and Continuation War memorial was designed by Ilmari Virkkala.

The old centre of Ähtäri lies west of the church. The building stock of the village, made up of residential and commercial buildings, dates mainly from the late 19th century and the early 20th century. South of Alkulantie are Ollinkulma, Alkula, Tötterman, Mimmilä and Kuntala, the old municipal hall.

Alkula, a house built at the end of the 19th century on Katulinja, first housed a savings bank and later a post office. The main building of Ollinkulma, from the 19th century, was moved to its present site and remodelled in 1913 as the municipal doctor's house. The building was renovated in 1987-1988 for use as a day-care centre.

The Tötterman house next to Alkula was built by the merchant Fredrik Nikolai Tötterman, who was a shareholder in Ähtärin Sähkö Oy, founded in the 1910s. The building was moved from the neighbouring Mimmilä plot, and its older part still contains business premises. Mimmilä was also built by the merchant Tötterman. It was originally built as the Helsingin Osakepankki building, probably in 1914-1915. The building housed branches of various banks until 1958, and since then it has been used mainly as residential accommodation.

Kuntala is a former chaplain's parsonage moved to its site in 1876-1877 from Markunniemi on the shore of Ouluvesi. This single-storey timber building was Ähtäri's original municipal hall and served as the municipal office until the completion of the present town hall in 1951.

History

The first church of Ähtäri, dating from 1657, was demolished in the following century. A second church was reportedly completed in the mid-18th century. It was demolished some hundred years later, and a third church was built in 1847. It burned down in 1935. The parish's present, fourth church was built in 1937 to designs by architect Bertel Liljeqvist.

The centre of Ähtäri developed near the church, on Hankolanmäki. The main street of the church village was Alkulantie, along which trade and services concentrated. The railway, built in the late 19th century, gradually drew settlement and business towards itself, and the centre shifted further south to the station area.