An Orthodox chapel, or tsasouna, has stood in the village of Hattuvaara for over two centuries. According to local folklore, the “tsasouna has been there from time immemorial”.Current estimates are that the chapel, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, was built in 1792. It is assumed to be the oldest continuously used wooden Orthodox chapel in Western Europe.The large icons that decorate the chapel's interior were painted in the late 17th century and brought to Hattuvaara from Terijoki in the Karelia region, which was ceded to the Soviet Union in 1940. The namesake icon “Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul” was made by the renowned iconographer Petros Sasaki in the 1980s. A nearby copse of ancient fir trees hides the old village graveyard.Hattuvaara remained untouched by the Winter War against the Soviet Union (1939 to 1940), but in July 1944, near the end of the Continuation War (1941 to1944), dark clouds gathered at the horizon. A team of the Finnish 3rd Border Jaeger Battalion had been dispatched to Hattuvaara village to set up an observation post in the chapel tower. Although the building is not particularly high, this vantage point offered expansive views toward the east because the agricultural village sits on a hilltop, and the surroundings were much less cluttered by trees and vegetation than nowadays.The battle of Hattuvaara began in the early morning of 30 July 1944. However, already on 29 July observers had spotted an enemy force sneaking toward the village using cornfields as cover. The Jaegers reacted promptly and opened fire on the Russian forces, who withdrew to the far bank of Sikrenpuro brook 1.5 kilometres away.The village’s main street passed by the chapel's side door during the war. The sole supply route to the northern sector of Ilomantsi Front during the battles of the late autumn of 1944 ran right past the chapel, so vehicles and other means of transport passed its outer walls almost within touching distance.The people of Hattuvaara celebrate their over two centuries old tsasouna on 29 June each year by arranging the Petru’s Praasniekka festival complete with a church service and other festivities.

Finland

The bell tower served as an observation post during the Continuation War in 1944.

The large icons in the chapel were painted in the late 19th century.

The village’s main street passed by the chapel's side door during the war.

Finnish cavalry passing the chapel on 2 July 1941, shortly after the outbreak of the Continuation War.

De orthodoxe kapel en uitkijkpost van Hattuvaara

Hatuntie 388, Hattuvaara

Photos