Karesuando Church

Wooden parish church where Laestadius preached his revivalist movement

The wooden church in the centre of Karesuando is the town's most significant historical landmark, and one of the most historically important churches in Swedish Lapland. It was here that Lars Levi Laestadius served as parish priest from 1826 and began the revivalist religious movement — Laestadianism — that swept through the Sami and Swedish-Finnish communities of the far north.

The church itself is a modest, whitewashed wooden structure typical of northern Swedish ecclesiastical architecture. Laestadius is buried in the churchyard beside it. The interior is simple and Lutheran, which makes the fervent history of the place all the more striking. The building has been restored but retains the atmosphere of a genuine northern frontier parish.

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A story
Lars Levi Laestadius used this pulpit to launch the revivalist movement that became Laestadianism in the 1840s. A preacher who combined Pietist Christianity with Sami spiritual traditions, Laestadius had such a fierce effect on his congregation that services sometimes became physical — people fell to the floor weeping or convulsing in what became known as the "holy scream." The movement still has an estimated 150,000 followers across northern Scandinavia today.