Ruokolahti Church

One of the finest attractions in Ruokolahti is the Ruokolahti Church hill, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful landscapes in all of South Karelia. Rising from the top of the hill is the Ruokolahti Church, a wooden cruciform church built in a combination of both Empire and Neo-Gothic styles. The Ruokolahti Church, completed in 1854, is the fourth church to have stood atop the Ruokolahti Church hill. Among the most famous works of Albert Edelfelt, one of the most famous artists of the Finnish Golden Age, is Women of Ruokolahti on the Church Hill (1887). To capture the genuine essence of the Karelian people, Edelfelt often sketched them on the spot. Although he began this painting in Ruokolahti, he actually finished the work at his studio in Haikko, where his family had their summer villa. Behind the Ruokolahti Church, where the women in the painting are sitting, there is now a monument honoring Albert Edelfelt and his time in Ruokolahti.