About this site
Stone church, medieval. The most significant of Eastern Häme's medieval churches is Hollola stone church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, situated at the foot of the prehistoric Kapatuosia hillfort. The brick decoration on the church's eastern and western gable ends is exceptionally rich. The various decorative motifs are grouped in horizontal zones. In the western gable there are six, with an additional cross niche in the upper part of the gable. The sacristy and weapon house gables also have brick ornamentation. The nave has large corner stones. The weapon house gable has an exceptionally well-preserved external pulpit. The church hall is two-aisled and has five bays. The vaults are so-called ring vaults, meaning there are roundels at the junction points of the star vault ribs. The primitive paintings in the church hall focus on the ribs. Of the numerous sculptures, the most significant depict the Virgin Mary and Saint George with his dragon. The central motif of the wooden antependium on the altar table is angels bearing a monstrance. The domestic baptismal font of crystalline limestone is of the so-called Vehmaa type and dated to the late 14th century. The wrought iron-decorated door panels of the sacristy and the south portal leading from the weapon house to the church hall are the finest in Finland. From the 17th-century furnishings are the altar installation donated by Johan Wrangel and Helena Eklöf with Golgotha-themed oil paintings, the pulpit, and Diedrich von Essen's (d. 1678) funeral coat of arms with associated paternal and maternal family crests. The handsome yellow-painted Empire bell tower was built in 1829–1831 according to C.L. Engel's design. Its passageway and the attached wings are of stone; the rest of the bell tower is wooden. The two funerary chapels in the eastern part of the churchyard belong to the Borcht and Ammond families. The latter is a rare Art Nouveau funerary chapel of its kind. The old churchyard is adjoined on the east, north, and south sides by a cemetery expanded at several different times. The vicarage built in 1813, located east of the churchyard-connected cemetery near the shore of Vesijärvi, had its interior thoroughly renovated in 1992, when it was converted into the congregation's ceremonial premises.
Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish
- Municipality
- Hollola