St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel in Turku

Inaugurated in 2005, St. Henry’s Ecumenical Art Chapel in Turku is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I've ever seen. It is a very simple building with a shape that reminds you of a fish or a boat.

The roof, or actually all of the outside, is made out of copper. The inside of the chapel is made completely out of wood. This 12 meter (40 feet) high ceiling looks much higher than it really is.

The natural light changes the balance of light and shadow constantly, thus the inside of the chapel never looks exactly the same.

The chapel was awarded with "The Roof of The Year 2005 (Vuoden Katto 2005)",  "Wood Award 2005 - people's choice (Puupalkinto 2005 - yleisön suosikki) ", "The Cultural Award of the Church (Kirkon kulttuuripalkinto)" and it was noted highly at the Biennale di Venezia. It was featured in the Japanese  magazine a + u, Architecture and Urbanism in 1997 and represented Finland in the "Holy Space" exhibition in Tokyo in 2003.

• Architects: Matti Sanaksenaho, Pirjo Sanaksenaho and Enrico Garbin
• Construction designer: Narmaplan Oy
• Glass paintings: Hannu Konola
• Acoustics: Alpo Halme
• Contractor: Hartela Oy (Henrikki Hirvelä)

The main altar was supposed to be planned by famous Finnish artist and sculptor Kain Tapper who unfortunately deceased before his work was finished. Since the artist was not satisfied with the latest draft of the altar, it was decided that there will be no altar in the chapel.

Currently the Art Chapel is second in number of visitors to religious sight in Finland, right after the Temppelinaukio Church in Helsinki!

The chapel is open to visitors every day from noon to 6pm. The address is Seiskarinkatu 30, Turku.

More information can be found here (in Finnish only).

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[kostas sidiropoulos]

Very nice architecture,minimal style,superb Finnish design!
I like to photograph Greek churches and monasteries.Our construction are more complicated.
My blog about Mount Athos,is dedicated to Finland for the Byzantine art exhibition,from 16 Aug in Helsinki.
Have you read about this exhibition?
Regards.
kostas