Tampere Cathedral

Tampere Cathedral is a National Romantic-style building designed by Lars Sonck, opened in 1907. The exterior in rough-hewn granite is striking, but the interior is what makes it genuinely exceptional. Hugo Simberg's frescoes — particularly The Garden of Death and The Wounded Angel — transform what could be a conventional Lutheran interior into one of the most unusual church spaces in Scandinavia.

The frescoes are not symbolic in a conventional religious sense: Simberg's skeleton gardeners and wounded supernatural figures provoke rather than reassure. Magnus Enckell's mosaic altar piece adds to the strange beauty of the interior. Admission is free, and the cathedral is generally open during daylight hours.

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A story
Tampere Cathedral was completed in 1907 and decorated with frescoes by Hugo Simberg, a symbolist artist who was given unusual creative freedom — and used it to paint The Garden of Death (a skeleton tending flowers), The Wounded Angel (two boys carrying a bleeding angel), and a procession of naked boys carrying a garland around the entire upper nave. The church board initially objected, but the frescoes were eventually accepted and are now considered some of the most important works of Finnish art.

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