Stories

The birth history of the altarpiece in Perho church was preceded by fruitful cooperation between the parish and Ilmari Wirkkala. Christ in the Wilderness was chosen from the three proposed sketches because the local people could identify in it their own municipality’s nature destinations, such as the Salmelanharju ridge and an unusual pine (“crown pine”) in Salamajärvi. The Lapland fell is viewed as a symbol of the northernmost part of the Oulu diocese, Perho being the southernmost parish of the diocese.

The church from 1903, designed by Walter Thomé, originally had no altarpieces. A typical example of Ilmari Wirkkala’s sharp eye was that he criticised the church benches, which had even been used as model in Kaustinen. ‘Children will fall from such garden benches’, Wirkkala wrote, refusing to give the famous architect credit in this area.