Kamppi Chapel
Chapel in Helsinki, Finland
The Kamppi Chapel (Finnish: Kampin kappeli, Swedish: Kampens kapell) is a chapel in the neighbourhood of Kamppi in Helsinki, Finland, located on the Narinkka Square. It is also known as the "Chapel of Silence" since it is intended to be a place to calm down and have a moment of silence in one of the busiest areas of the city.
The chapel is operated on a partnership basis by the Helsinki Parish Union and the Social Services Department of the City of Helsinki, while the parish unions of the neighbouring cities of Espoo and Vantaa also participate in the chapel's activities. Regular church services are not being held in the chapel, though it is planned to hold regular moments of prayer in the future.
01Ecumenical Chapel
The chapel is ecumenical and welcomes everyone irrespective of religion, philosophy of life or background. The chapel's overall design (both on the interior and exterior) is very austere and simplistic, as well as mostly neutral, bearing some semblance to a multi-faith prayer room.
The representatives of both the parishes and the Social Services Department are available in the chapel for personal discussions.
The chapel was constructed as a part of the World Design Capital program in 2012. It was designed by architects Kimmo Lintula, Niko Sirola and Mikko Summanen of K2S Architects Ltd., and won the International Architecture Awards in 2010. The chapel became popular immediately after it was opened; some 250,000 people had visited by January 2013. A year later, the chapel received its 500,000th visitor. CNN called the building an architectural landmark and said: "The chapel demonstrates how contemporary architecture at its best can fascinate and inspire."
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kamppi Chapel”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Kamppi Chapel 2020.jpg by Vadelmavene, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Kamppi Chapel interior.jpg by Denis Koshelev, CC BY-SA 4.0
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