Peräseinäjoki heroes’ cemetery

The parish’s old cemetery next to the church was put back into use when 22 soldiers who had fallen fighting on the white side in the 1918 war were buried there. The “Statue of Liberty” monument erected in the area was unveiled on September 20, 1922, and according to tradition, it was sculpted by master builder Kukkula.

74 people from Seinäjoki who lost their lives in the Winter War, and 162 in the Continuation War, were laid to rest in their home parish’s heroes’ cemetery next to the church, with the exception of those who remained on the battlefield, who were buried later. The memorial for the Winter and Continuation War, built by the sculptor Kalervo Kallio, “Sotaan lähtö”, was uncovered on the 18th of October 1953. The newspapers praised this statue as one of the most valiant war memorials. Almost 2000 people from Seinäjoki were present at the time of the unveiling. The back of the memorial features an inscription with the names and birth and death dates of the fallen heroes. In memory of those whose bodies remained in Karelia, a memorial was built in 1960, on the western end of the heroes’ cemetery.
The white crosses that originally stood in the Heroes’ Cemetery were replaced with memorial stones in 1961. The poor legibility of the inscriptions on the memorial stones was a topic of discussion among parish officials for many years, and the engravings were corrected in 2013.
In 2001, commemorative plaques were installed in the foyer of the parish hall, bearing the names of all the fallen heroes who died in the Finnish Civil War, the Winter War, and the Continuation War.