The old Finnish kirch. Мuseum of angels

Hello, my friends.

I want to continue my story about my trip to Karelia in August of this year.
For those who have not yet read my previous posts about Karelia, I remind you:

This time I want to tell you about the old Finnish kirch, which is located in the city of Lahdenpohja.

This old Finnish church is located on the St. Petersburg - Petrozavodsk highway, in the center of Lahdenpohya, on a hill. You will not be able to pass by this place without noticing it.
In 1977, there was a fire in it, only the walls of the church were preserved. In that Soviet time, no one wanted to restore this structure, because there was an ideology of "There is no God". At that time, there was a hostel in this building, which apparently led to the fire.
Now people are raising money for the restoration of this church. Creative people, sculptors organized a museum of wooden figures of angels inside the church. On the day of my arrival in this city, I was surprised that there were several large excursion buses next to this building.buses, about a dozen cars and a lot of people were walking. And we decided that we should also visit this place..

From the outside, the building looks quite solid, especially if you look at it from some distance and do not notice the absence of a roof and windows.

These places are also the burial place of more than 300 Finnish soldiers who died in the wars of the 20th century, i.e. from 1917 to 1944. If my memory does not change, during this time there were 4 small military conflicts between Finland and Soviet Russia for the territory of Karelia, as well as battles were fought in these places during the Second World War.

At the entrance to the museum-church there are 2 doormen, 2 wooden statues. In this city, you can find a lot of such large wooden figures. They stand in front of the entrance to the shops, in the city park, even just by the side of the road
In general, in Karelia they like the combination "stone-wood".

The very first thing I saw when I entered the museum was a bench on which 3 people were sitting, two of which were wooden. And a living person is my son-in-law, my daughter's husband.
He sat on the bench for a long time, listening to music that came from small speakers, and thought about something. I did not interfere with his thoughts. My daughter did it. She cannot pass by her beloved husband indifferently.

Well, then. Friends, let's see what interesting wood sculptors have prepared for us. The atmosphere, the music contributed to a leisurely inspection of the room.
The room is a proportional cross with the same sides. On the Internet, you can even find photos of the interior decoration at the time when the church was used for its intended purpose, before the Lahdenpohya became part of the Soviet Union.

At the entrance there is a composition that symbolizes the birth of a person. The angel farmer waters the cabbage from which people are born. As a child, in our village, children were told that parents find children in cabbage. I was surprised to see such a legend here.

A stork flies into the window with a baby, and there is also an angel standing next to it, who apparently fulfills wishes. Although maybe it just registers people's wishes for the birth of children, because the sign says "Order Bureau". Probably, we are talking about orders for the birth of children.
By the way, my daughter does not make a record of wanting to have a child. But maybe I'm wrong. I didn't ask her about her wish, which she wrote down in a book.

Friends, look at the expression on the face of this angel. Here you can see the cunning and kindness. Probably, he knows something that is not told when concluding a contract for the fulfillment of a wish. He even raised a finger to warn about the addition to the contract, written in a small handwriting.

This, by the way, is the entrance to the church itself.

In the left wing of the church there are statues of "Mother's hands" and "My Guardian Angel". It is clear that the sculptor put his soul into his creation.

When I stood at the statue of "Mother's Hands", supporting a baby who wants to escape from these, I thought about my children. They were just as small and just as eager to escape. The older ones have already grown up and ran away. Now the youngest is also trying to break away from mom and dad.

Mom's hands
2019
What is the Angel's name? Tell me!
How can I recognize him among thousands?

It doesn't matter at all, baby.
You will call the Angel Mom.

Alyona Timokhina.

They dropped the bear on the floor,
They tore off the bear's paw.
I won't leave him anyway -
Because he's good.

These little poems for kids were written by the Soviet poet Agnia Barto

This is a guardian Angel. When you sit next to him on a bench, he spreads his wings and covers you with them, protecting you from grief, adversity and all sorts of troubles.
So I decided to sit next to him.

And my son-in-law just climbed under the wing of an Angel.

An angel illuminating our path. So that we are not afraid to go our own way, so that the path does not seem lonely to us.

These are the construction angels. They were created by sculptors to help in the restoration of the church.

3 construction angels who have risen on their wings. But there is also a fourth, which was created by the church itself.

There are also other statues. These are such single figures-angels who live in this old Finnish church and are waiting for its restoration. It seems to me that we stayed in this museum for almost an hour. It would seem that there are not so many exhibits, but you can just sit on a bench there and think about the eternal.
I will say more. You can enter the museum absolutely for free. The female cashier went to another place, the doors to the museum are open. But we invited the cashier, paid 200 rubles each, and at my daughter's request, I also bought small souvenirs that are on display at the entrance to the church.

There are also wooden figures in the backyard of this museum.
I liked this one.

And there is also a platform for the construction of pyramids made of stones. This is a great place.
But it was already necessary to go to our recreation center. We're hungry. We still had to go to the store and buy food. It was about 12-15 kilometers from this museum to our place of rest.

To be continued...