Church of the Three Crosses

Aalto started working on the plans for this church in 1955 as an offshoot of the master plan of Imatra completed in 1953. Construction of the church was completed in 1958. Without any doubt Aalto’s most original church design, Vuoksenniska Church – in conformity with his fundamental approach to architecture as a synthesis of varied practical and aesthetic needs – fuses a broad range of motifs into a unique, coherent work of artistic perfection.

The division of the interior into three units gave Aalto the occasion to raise the number three into a more widely applicable, theologically justified motif: “The bell tower is dominated by the number three: its top section is tripartite, and widens upward. With this form the architect wished to create an architectural image that contrasts as strongly as possible with the factory chimneys which dominate the surroundings. The triad recurs inside in the vault which covers the three halls. The motif converges at the altar in three unpretentious crosses.”