Monuments at Veteli chuch
Torpantie 133 Veteli
The Veteli Local Heritage Association had asked Ilmari Wirkkala to design a stone circle on an old traditional gathering place close to the Veteli church. This plan changed when Ilmari’s eldest son Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985) graduated from art school and was assigned to sculpt a settler monument in the same location.
The settler statue stands on an elevated location near the bell tower. From here the settler figure looks over the fields of Veteli. Money was collected from the public to finance the statue, and most of the costs were paid by entrepreneur Samuel Harima, born in Veteli. The unveiling gathered thousands of people to the church hill on 1 August 1939.
Another statue by Tapio Wirkkala was also erected in the graveyard of Veteli: the artist was commissioned to create a monument for fallen soldiers from grey granite. This statue from the post-war times is more in line with the artist’s sculptural view that we know from later times.
Stories
The settler statue is one of Finland’s first statues dedicated to human work. Making and erecting it cost a lot, but the energetic activists finally managed to collect the necessary sum of money. Tapio Wirkkala judged the statue later as follows: "It is one of the works from my early years – and it shows."
A dimensioning error was first made in the base of the statue, and stonecutter Pekola quickly had to make a new one.
One day in 1987, young farmers protesting the law prohibiting land clearing covered the beloved statue with a large sack. They found that the symbol of the spirit of land should not see “this day of shame”.
Photos
The settler statue (Raivaaja)
The monument for fallen soldiers
Heroic statue
Heroic monuments
Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985)
