Alvar Aalto Church of the Cross Tower

In this blip of Alvar Aalto's Church of the Cross Tower in Lahti, Finland, I wanted to catch the foreground angel sculpture in my picture. It was in a garden off to the side.

After photographing this famous Church of the Cross on September 10th, late in the afternoon, I realised I had not allocated anywhere near enough time for this classic building. For example I could not get inside as it was too late in the day. I could see through the windows a very interesting modern pipe organ and wonderful light spaces. You can hear the organ by clicking here.

I was due to take a flight the next day, so early morning I rushed back up the hill to see if I could get inside the church. This time I was too early, so I settled for this view of a sculpture of an angel, looking towards the church tower. Hence this blip, put up as a back blip, due to the image and my little story being put on the back-burner thanks to my travels. It looks quite impressive in LARGE.

The story of the Church of the Cross (Evangelical Lutheran) began in 1950, when the city of Lahti announced an architectural competition that was won by Alvar Aalto. The original site however was not an empty spot on a hill, as the city's wooden church from the 19th century previously stood there.

It was decided that the wooden church was too small for the growing community. The church is on the visual axis with Lahti's town hall designed by Eliel Saarinen. I did not have time to go and photograph the town hall this year, but plan to be back in Lahti, the same time next year to do the same fitness event again.

I now have so many places to photograph next time round that missed out this year. Maybe we can have a special Blip Meeting with other Finnish blippers, with the help of Jenni.

The drawings for the construction of the Church of the Cross project were started in 1969. The legend tells us that this was the last project of Alvar Aalto. When the star-architect died, the drawings of the Lahti church were on his desk. Alvar Aalto died on May 11, 1976, in Helsinki.

An interesting side notice: there was actually no cross on the top of the tower in the original design. After long discussions and negotiations, the tower now has a small cross on it after-all. Not sure if it was called Church of the Cross before or after this decision!

If you look through my other blips from September you will find some more Aalto images.