Vuoksela Church

Vuoksela Church is a Lutheran church from the late 1920s on Cape Lammasniemi, 15 kilometers from the village of Losevo, in the Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, on the bank of the northern branch of the Vuoksa River (the Vuoksa-Virta). The Finnish village of Vuoksela once stood here and was destroyed during the war; the church building is the only structure that has survived among the forest that has grown over the site.

History

The church was built in 1928-1929 to a design by the Finnish architect Ilmari Launis and consecrated on December 12, 1929. Construction, including the organ and bells, cost 1,260,000 marks. The octagonal bell tower attached to the main building is topped with a cross that survives to this day. Launis used a similar design in 1934-1935 for a church in the Lumivaara parish; the Vuoksela church also had heating installed.

In 1938 a stone fence 1.2 meters high and 50 cm thick was built around the church, designed by architect Juhani Viisten and built by residents of all 11 villages of the parish.

Before the church was built, the parish used a prayer house moved in 1905 from Antrea to the village of Uusikylä; it was not heated, so residents gathered for prayer in a parish hut on Cape Lammasniemi. From 1917 the cape became a permanent place of worship, and the church itself was later built there.

Now

In Soviet times a base of the Kozitsky factory was set up on the site, taking over the church building itself. A sign with "historical information" on the territory of the base was put up by the factory's own workers, and its text does not correspond to reality.

Today the church stands on the grounds of a tourist camp, closed to visitors but listed as a cultural monument in the register of the State Institute for the Protection of Monuments. Next to it is a mass grave of Finnish soldiers who died in 1939-1945, occasionally visited by people from Finland.

Getting there

The nearest settlement is the village of Romashki, on the opposite bank of the river from the church. To reach it, head to Romashki from Losevo; the church stands on the other bank of the Vuoksa-Virta, across from the road.