Lakeuden Risti Church
church building in Seinäjoki, Finland
Lakeuden Risti Church (Finnish: Lakeuden Ristin kirkko; lit. "Cross of the Plains Church") is a Lutheran church located in Seinäjoki, Finland. The church was designed by Alvar Aalto and built between 1957–1960. It was the first finished building of the larger administrative and civic center also planned by Aalto, consisting of Seinäjoki town hall, a library, a theater and a state office building.
Architecture
The cathedral-like building seats 1200 people in the hall and 124 in the organ gallery. In the Gesamtkunstwerk spirit Aalto also designed silverware, antependiums, altar cloths and two stained glass paintings for the church.
The cross-shaped bell tower from which the church gets its name is 65 meters high and a local landmark. A parish center by Aalto, consisting of white one-storey and two-storey buildings, was built next to the church in 1964–66. Aalto also planned the surrounding park.
The Finnish Heritage Agency has listed the church as a nationally significant built heritage site as part of Aalto's administrative and civic center.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lakeuden Risti Church” as church building in Seinäjoki, Finland. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as church building in Seinäjoki, Finland. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 9, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q11874486. Authority coordinates are 62.787, 22.845. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1960, 1200 and 1964.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lakeuden Risti Church”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lakeuden Risti Church primary sources, Lakeuden Risti Church archive and Lakeuden research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lakeuden Risti Church”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lakeuden Risti Church” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.