Imatra church needs €2.5 million renovation, but funding is lacking

Renovation work inside Imatra’s Three Crosses Church is expected to cost €2.5 million, but the parish has not secured the funding to begin, Yle reports. The church, designed by architect Alvar Aalto and recently named a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been closed since 2020 because of indoor air problems.

Repairs to the church’s concrete floor structures pose particular challenges. In the front hall, workers would have to remove reddish church tiles, but a trial removal damaged some of them. The tiles were made by Kupittaan Savi, a company that closed in 1969, and replacements would have to be made by hand.

The parish is considering repairing the floor structures from below to preserve the tiles. The work would also require temporary supports for the church’s load-bearing structures to prevent the building from moving, says Virpi Monto, the parish’s property manager.

The renovation plans aim to preserve original marble tiles in the choir area. A new ventilation system will also be needed. Because the building is protected, ventilation equipment and grilles cannot be added to its facade, and new visible casings or suspended ceilings are not an option. Instead, ducts would run from the basement to the forest edge, where air intake and exhaust structures resembling totem poles would be built.

The UNESCO designation has not brought funding or added maintenance obligations. The church was already protected under planning rules and church law, and its owner remains responsible for its upkeep. Monto said the designation had strengthened the sense that the church must now be protected for the world.

The parish plans to apply for a building grant from the Church Council before the end of the year. It can also seek support from the Finnish Heritage Agency, although the grants available there are not large. The agency says the renovation is not urgently required.

The church, completed in 1958, is in Vuoksenniska, Imatra.