Ylistaro church

Ylistaro belonged to the Pohjankyrö church municipality but, since 1658, it has acted as the Isonkyrö chapel parish. Ylistaro became an independent parish in the year 1859, and in the parish union of 2009 became part of the Seinäjoki parish again.

The first church of Ylistaro was built in 1658, even though the permissions for the construction had not yet been obtained. The next year the cathedral chapter forbade the holding of church services, but upon request of the people of Ylistaro, permission was received a few months later. In 1661 a parish priest was requested. The people of Ylistaro also built a bell tower for their church on their own initiative in the 1690s.

Over the course of just under a hundred years, the church became too small, and the new church was completed in 1748, with the tower in 1775. Already in the 1840s, the church was narrowed again and planning for the construction of the new church started. Because Ylistaro was a so-called imperial municipality, the emperor had greater influence than usual over the construction of the church as well. When the people of Ylistaro were planning a wooden church, the emperor ordered that a stone church be built instead.

The location of the church was a point of discussion for years. The state architect E. Lohrmann drew up the design in 1846, and in the same year Juho Kuorikoski was hired as a construction foreman. The church was completed in 1850, and it was consecrated by the archbishop Edvard Bergenheim on Ascension Day, 20 May 1852.

The Ylistaro church is among the first representations of early neo-gothic architecture in our country. It is the third largest church in our country after the Kerimäki church and Johannes church. The church is 59 metres long and 26 meters wide. The main cross rises to a height of 52 metres. After the renovation works of the 1970s, the church’s seating capacity became 2500. There were a hundred more before.

The “stunning church” visible from afar across the plains stood out even more than usual. That almost raised some doubts that the drawings were swapped for the Ylistaro and the Vaasa church. Ylistaro was still the largest Finnish-speaking chapel parish at the time, with circa 8000 residents. All who wished to had to fit into the church.

The church’s impressive look is enhanced by the stone and bricks used as construction materials. Since, at the time, it had to be candlelit and warmed by wood, the choice of materials was the solution to make it fireproof. The surface of the tower is partially made of bricks, but the external wall has a light plaster, which was renewed in 1994. In the 1970s, the interior of the church was brought back to the colours of the original model.

The vaulted nave is divided into three aisles by two-story galleries built along each of the long sides. The walls feature Gothic arch motifs and a large arched window under which stands an altarpiece depicting the Transfiguration of Jesus, a painting by Adolf von Becker in 1888. Following the fourth-century translation work of Jerome, the altarpiece of the Ylistaro church has included horns in the depiction of Moses. The word “brightness/radiance” in Hebrew closely resembles the word for “horns” (Exodus 34:29).

In the celebration of the centenary of the church, in 1952, a 54-step organ was inaugurated, built by the Kangasala organ manufacturer. The organ’s celesta stop was a donation by the people of Ylistaro living in America. The backpipes in the forefront are mechanical, while the rest of the main organ is electro-pneumatic.

The organ loft features frescoes painted by the artist Urho Lehtinen “Uusi virsi” and “Vanha virsi”. Urkuparvella ovat taiteilija Urho Lehtisen maalaamat freskot ”Uusi virsi” ja ”Vanha virsi”. A medieval chasuble, a Bible dating from 1642, the old crucifix on the altar and a self-portrait painted by the church minister of Isonkyrö Isak Brenner, in 1661 are valuable properties of the church. In the sacristy can also be found a multi-branched candelabrum donated by the emperor, whose pedestal bears the emperor’s emblems: a double-headed eagle and a sigil.

The majority of the church’s “vaivaisukko”, wooden donation boxes carved in the shape of a poor man, were made at the beginning of the 19th century, and many of them depict disabled soldiers from the Finnish War (1808–09). So is the vaivaisukko of the Ylistaro church, which dates from 1836. Its attire reminds of the uniforms of the Finnish War army men. The vaivaisukko was originally on the outer wall of the church, but in the early 2000s, the statue was vandalised. The donation box was looted, and the vaivaisukko’s head was slit in half with an axe. After being repaired, the vaivaisukko was moved to the outer lobby of the church. The funds raised are used to finance the diaconal work, in line with the traditional intent behind the vaivaisukko.

In the history of the church, there is also a fire: on the evening of 30/5/1954, a lightning strike hit the church tower “a couple of times”, according to the eyewitnesses, and started a fire. Through the efforts of the parishioners and fire brigades, the fire was contained within the tower, which was severely damaged. The new organ also suffered damage from the water used to put out the fire. The repair work was carried out quickly, and by that fall, the tower was in even better shape and 2.5 meters taller than before.

The Ylistaro church is part of the nationally important Kyrönjoki valley landscape area. The previous churches were located on the oldest graveyard site, the central part of which is now dedicated to the military section of the cemetery. The memorial for the Finnish Civil War was sculpted by artist Eljas Ilkka, while the monuments commemorating the Winter War, the Continuation War, and the former churches were sculpted by artist Kalervo Kallio.

To the south of the church are the parish hall, designed by the architectural firm of Aulis Jääskeläinen and built in 1974, and the parish office building, built in 1986.

The relentless desire of the people of Ylistaro to get their own chapel parish didn’t budge even when the matter went to court, and their hard work paid off in the year 1667, when the parish received its first vicar.

The stages of the foundation of the parish

Ylistaro is the youngest of the chapels in the old Pohjankyrö mother church. In getting their own church, the people from Ylistaro showed a remarkable self-initiative and determination when they started to build their own chapel without having first received a permit from the mother church. Although the matter went to court, the people of Ylistaro were rewarded for their tenacity. Their own chapel parish started to take shape in 1667, when Klementti Röök, from Isokyrö, was appointed vicar. To get their own priest, the people of Ylistaro had to swear on their own behalf, their children, and their descendants, that they would never part from the mother church of Isokyrö, but would contribute to its expenses.

When the state of the first church started to get worse and worse, and the complaints from the parishioners became insistent, then it was decided that a new church had to be built. The second church of Ylistaro was completed in 1748. There are no drawings left from the construction of the second church, and neither from the first one, but they were presumably wooden rectangular churches with tall steep roofs, coherently architectural style of the time. The bell towers of both churches were separated from the churches. The funding for the construction of the second church of Ylistaro was supported by the official national church magazine.

The beautiful church under the emperor

The population of Ylistaro and the general wellness began to grow in the early 19th century. The revivalist movements had come to stay. People had a burning desire to come and hear the gospel and educate their children to attend church, but the church started to get crowded. The idea of building a new church was brought up in a church meeting in 1838. The matter was settled when the Russian emperor commissioned E. Lohrman, the superintendent of public buildings, to draw up the plans for the Ylistaro Church. In 1846, the senate approved the drawings and, in the spring of the following year, the construction started with the rock drilling. This allows us to unequivocally dismiss as baseless any subsequent claims regarding changes to the drawings or that it was not originally intended to be built in Ylistaro. The decision to build the church was preceded and facilitated by the transfer of the parishes of Heikkola, Riarehto (Isokylä), and Torkkola from Isostakyrö to Ylistaro in 1840. Ylistaro at the time already had a larger population than Isokyrö. The construction of the church continued under the leadership of Jaakko Kuorikoski so that the archbishop Edvard Bergenheim got to consecrate the church on Ascension Day, 20/05/1852. With 2300 seats, the church is the third largest in our country.

The Ylistaro Chapel became an independent parish by imperial decree on February 7, 1859. The emperor declared that the separation would take place in conjunction with the next mother chapel’s parochial elections. The first parochial elections in the Ylistaro church took place in 1879, when Salomon Hirvinen was elected as the first parish minister. He began his mandate in 1881. In the same year, the church got Adolf von Becker to paint the altarpiece.

The organ of the Ylistaro church was manufactured by the Kangasala organ manufacturer on the centenary of the church, in 1952. The organ has 55 stops.

Of the three church bells in the tower of Ylistaro Church, the oldest dates back to the first church. Its inscription still calls parishioners to hear the word of God, echoing Psalm 50:5: “Gather my saints to me.”

The chapel parish nowadays

Following the merging of the municipalities in 2009, the Ylistaro parish became part of the Seinäjoki parish. Today, Ylistaro is a vibrant and independently operating chapel parish with more than 5000 parishioners. Alongside its employees, the chapel parish is supported by a large team of several hundred volunteers. Next to the church are a cemetery, a parish hall built in 1974 and later expanded, and an office building completed in 1986.

Text by: Esa Perttu