Kristinusko Hangossa 

- Christianity in Hanko

Traditionally it is said that Christianity came to Finland with Eric of Sweden and Bishop Henry in the 1150's with the first so called crusade to Finland. However there had been trade between what is now Sweden around the Fenno Peninsula which became Österland, to the great rivers of Russia, to Novgorod and down to Kiev and beyond. Orthodoxy was established as the state religion of Kiev and its territories in 988 when Duke Vladimir of Kiev had a grand baptism of the whole population. Trade brought connections with Christianity from north Germany and from Novgorod, which was allied to Kiev. Archaeologists have found that there was a shift in funeral practices from burning to burial and also that the graves came to be on an east-west axis in the 8th to 10th centuries, which was typical for Christian practice.

The first chapel is built on the Hanko peninsula

The Hanko peninsula is a rough, rocky and sandy peninsula on the south-western point of Österland around which seafarers had to navigate in their east-west sailing. At a good harbour point on the north side of the peninsula in line with the archipelago channel a few fisher families settled cultivating the poor land, harvesting the sea and acting as pilots for ships going around the peninsula. In the early 1100's a chapel was built to serve the five farms of what became Hangöby and the travellers and a small graveyard came to be. In the early 2000's it was excavated and 27 graves of men, women and children were found. The Hanko peninsula was included in the parish of Tenala when it was formed in the early 1200's after which parishioners were expected to be buried in the parish church yard in Tenala.

Finland and Hanko between Swedish and Russian reign

The chapel in Chapel harbour (Kapellhamn) was still there in 1700, but was gone by the middle of the 1700's. That was not so surprising as all the buildings on the Hanko peninsula were destroyed during the wars of 1700 - 1721 and again in early 1740's and in the 1780's when Russian forces occupied southern Finland.

From 1789 on, Sweden built a fortress in Hanko on three islands and with the landward base on what was to be called Drottningsberg. They also built a small chapel to serve their needs. However, Finland was ceded to Russia in 1808 and Russia took over the half-built fortress and increased the military, bringing civilians with them. It became apparent that the chapel was not big enough and so a church was built in 1845 consecrated to St. Panteleimon who has a name day on 27th July. (On Panteleimon's day in 1714 Russia's first naval victory was won just to the north of Hanko and has become the Russian Navy Day) This church was built between what is now Origo restaurant and the present museum.

Fortune didn't always favour the Russians and in 1854 war broke out between Russia, Turkey, France and Great Britain. The British and French fleets were very active in the Baltic and the Russians felt they could not hold the Hanko fortress, whereby they blew it up and gave local people permission to use what they wanted from the remains. The Panteleimon church was taken down and moved to Ekenäs where it was rebuilt in the garrison area and is today used as a storehouse. Stones from the fortress were used to form a wall around Ekenäs church and also foundation stones for the railway bridge that was built in 1873. Icons from Panteleimon's church were moved to Ekenäs and stored privately.

When Ehrensvärd came to Finland in 1748 to see where to build fortresses he stopped in Hanko and told of a large graveyard on the shore which later came to be in the fortress land area. This was a graveyard for strangers, sailors, soldiers and people not registered in Tenala parish books. It is believed that victims from the battle of Relax in 1714 were buried there because in 1880 an application was made to the Tsar to establish a new graveyard because the existing one which was much bigger than the present one, was full.

Hanko develops - need for closer spiritual service

After the fortress was demolished, there were very few people living on the peninsula, five farms in Hangöby, five in Täktom a few in Sandö, Tvärminne and Lappvik. Then in 1873 a railway was built from Hyvinkää to Hanko to provide a winter harbour for St.Petersburg. Although it wasn't a big success with the Petersburg traffic it did give an impetus to the development of Finland and the peninsula. Hanko got its town charter in 1874 but by 1879 there were only some 400 people in the town when the town fathers decided to found a sea spa after which the town developed quickly. With this development came a need for a closer spiritual life. Bromarv became a chapel congregation within the Tenala parish in 1677, to which much of the Hanko peninsula belonged, but became an independent parish in 1881. With the rise in population in Hanko there was a need for much closer spiritual service and so a movement was formed to build a church. The Lutheran church was built in 1892 on Vårdberg.

With the expansion of the sea spa bringing people from St. Petersburg and Helsinki and the increase in officials and military in town there became a need for orthodox spiritual guidance and so in 1888 the western travelling priest was assigned to look after the Hanko peninsula. The biggest impetus for building an orthodox church in Hanko came when Tsar Alexander III and family were involved in a train derailment near Harkova from which they were miracularly saved, and a collection of thanksgiving was made to which donations came from spa guests, military, local people and from as far away as Inkoo with the intentions of building a church.

Hanko Orthodox Church is created

The church was designed by the St. Petersburg architect V.I .Barankejev on a plot stretching from Appelgrensvägen to Såggatan rented from the town for 10 marks a year and the building started in august 1894 using the foundation stones from the old Panteleimon church. The church was consecrated already 14.7.1895 by Archbishop Antoni of Viipuri and the first priest was Alexander Jakobov. The building was done by local workers and dedicated to Maria Magdala and St. Vladimir of Kiev. The parish had about 150 souls to start with and had increased by 40 over the next 10 years.

The iconostas for the church was made especially in St. Petersburg for the Hanko church as were the seven bells donated by St. Johannes of Cronstad made of melted down old Swedish canon. Donations came from many people, especially from A.M. Siskov, St. Johannes, local people, and from as far as Moscow. Perhaps the oldest thing in the church is the funeral chest with icons of the twelve  happenings from Easter week which is thought to have been made between 1720 and 1750 in the Moscow area and donated by A.M.Siskov. Then there is the 5-icon series of Kristus, Mary, Archangel Michael, St. Panteleimon and Alexander Nevski from the Panteleimon church, but originally from a Russian naval hospital ship, from the 1750's. The Elian icon is a copy of an original painted in the northern Ukraine in the 1650's, made in Vladimir in the 1820's. It was donated by Anna Vasiljevna Sokolova from St. Peterburg in 1901. The wedding crowns are copies of Alexander III's wedding crowns, but not real gold.

Hanko was an independent congregation, but suffered all along with very poor economy. After the Finnish independence there were very few orthodox left in Hanko and so in 1919 the Hanko church was put under the administration of the Helsinki parish and the services were reduced even down to just the temple feast, Praasniekka, each year.

A congregation house is built

In 1898 a house was built for the priest and cantor when they were in town and where a verger lived to look after the church and surroundings. The church also rented out a couple of dwellings there. From 1953 until 1967 this house was used by the travelling priest Tapani Repo and family. With so little activity in the church the town wanted to split the church plot into six, whereby the church retained three plots, but in 1967 the priest's house was demolished at the wishes of the town and a new congregation house was built on the plot immediately behind the church at a cost of 30,000 mk. The other plot reverted to the town.

From threat of liquidation to reestablishment of the church

In the 1930's there were so few services in Hanko there was a discussion in the Helsinki congregation to liquidate the Hanko church and move it to the Orthodox graveyard in Helsinki. In 1937 much of the items in church were moved to Uspenski and Holy Trinity church in Helsinki and then in 1940 with the Hanko Peninsula being rented to the Soviet Union, the church was emptied completely.

The Soviets used the church as a club and meeting place and it was also used to stable horses, for they were useful to warm the building. When the soviets left Hanko at the end of 1941 the church was the best preserved of all the churches in Hanko even though bottles and crockery had been thrown through the windows and the front door shot through with bullets. Also, a large propaganda poster had been fixed to the northwest cross, which a Swedish volunteer took a photograph of showing a wire coming out from behind, pointing to the fact that it was mined, like most public buildings in town. As the Orthodox church was the best preserved of all the churches in Hanko, it was used by all denominations for a while until others could be made usable.

9.12.1949 the Helsinki congregation council suggested liquidating the assets of the Hanko Church and in April 1950 a committee including Tapani Repo and Alexander Denisov visited Hanko. But they reported that the church should be saved and reconditioned. In 1951 the church feast was held for the first time in 12 years, after which it was decided to hold three to four services a year. In 1954 the church was painted on the outside and the inside in 1956 and rededicated in 1957 when the bishop of San Fransisco, Johannes presented a silver cross. 

Hanko church property was collected from various places where they had been stored or loaned to, including the iconostasis which had been moved to Espoo. Tito and Ina Colliander cleaned the icons and Ina together with Marina Repo made mosaic icons to go in the corner towers and over the main door. Originally, the church had seven bells founded in Kroonstad from old Swedish canon. Only two of them were returned, for five of them were being used in the new Helsinki graveyard chapel. One bell came from Syväniemi and two from Yrjö Manner, one of which originated from Ladoga's Valamo. Unfortunately, when the bells were rehung attention was not placed on where the tongues hang. On two of them the tongues were so high they struck on the thinnest part of the bell which broke them. Items from the Hanko inventory are still spread around the congregation partly because when the West Nyland church was founded in Lohja requisites were borrowed there for they had more frequent services. A number of St. Johannes of Kroonstad´s gifts are still being borrowed (see Världens Ljus av Hanko Museum article by Timo Lehtonen). In 2018 we finally got back from Tikkurila the Panteleimon and Alexander Nevski icons which belonged to the collection of five icons from the old Panteleimon church.

Hanko Orthodox church grows alongside growth of Hanko population 

During the 1950's and 60's there was a large influx of people from eastern Finland to fill the jobs with the influx of industry. This included many orthodox and together with the rise in the standard of living and influx of holiday homes, a need for more regular services was noted. From 1968, Lohja, having its own priest and cantor made it possible to have monthly services and it was decided that the second Sunday of the month together with the Saturday were to be Hanko's as well as other occasional services. It seems that regular choir activity started in 1986 and continues to this day.

In 2012 a group of people started an association, The Friends of Hanko Orthodox Church (Hangon Ortodoksisen Kirkon Ystävät ry), with the object of supporting the church and arranging collections for its development. Over its 10 years the plot at the back of the church was cleared and planted with cherry trees, roses and grass and a wooden fence built to separate it from the boatyard at the back. The two broken bells were replaced with bells from Innsbruck and to crown all, the old congregation building from 1967 was replaced with a new building following much better the style of the church, and whereby two rooms are for the accommodation of visitors.

In 2021 the electrics of the church were renewed and in 2022 the church was cleaned and professionally painted on the exterior from the cupolas to the ground including the roof. The drains were rebuilt and the entrance and carpark were asphalted. The whole makes it one of the top attractions of Hanko.

The orthodox population of Hanko is only about 65, but with the free-time population and visitors from neighbouring communities, there are usually 25 to 30 people in the services rising to well over 100 at the church feast in July and at Easter.

Written by Alan Jeffery, BA(Hon) history, from University of East Anglia in England. Born in Cambridge, England and moved to Hanko 1974. Alan has guided in Hanko from 1978 - 2001 and has sung in the Orthodox church choir from 1989. He became sexton of the church in 2001 - 2010 and again in 2019 - . 

Further information: Alan Jeffery, 040 5542 764.