Lakeuden Risti

Lakeuden Risti – the main church of the Seinäjoki parish was designed by architect Alvar Aalto and consecrated in 1960. Alvar Aalto and his assistants entered the design competition with their submission titled Lakeuksien Risti, which emerged a clear winner. The proposed name of the cathedral-shaped church was later amended to Lakeuden Risti.

In Aalto’s original proposal, the church was clad in polished black granite, but it was then decided that the granite should only be used in the lower parts of the walls and the walls of the chapel, and the other wall surfaces were left as brick and rendered white. The impressive hall seats 1,200 in the pews and 124 in the organ gallery. The interior was also mostly designed by Aalto. The 213-foot tower can be seen from afar across the plains. The church was designed speculatively as a cathedral, but the seat of the bishop eventually went to Lapua instead. Lakeuden Risti was the first of the buildings in the administrative and cultural complex of Seinäjoki. Today, the complex is known as the Aalto Centre after the architect who designed it.