Orthodox chapel in Hattuvaara

An Orthodox chapel, or tsasouna, has stood in the village of Hattuvaara for over two centuries and is Finland's oldest remaining example of Karelian village chapel architecture. According to local folklore, the “tsasouna has been there from time immemorial.”

Finnish cavalry passing the chapel on 2 July 1941.

Prayer chapel and Continuation War observation post in old Orthodox village.

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 ceded Karelia. 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.

A team of the 3rd Border Jaeger Battalion set up an observation post in the chapel tower.

Hattuvaara remained untouched by the Winter War, but in July 1944 dark clouds gathered at the horizon. A team of the 3rd Border Jaeger Battalion had been dispatched to the 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 July 30. However, already on July 29, observers had spotted an enemy force sneaking toward the village using cornfields as cover. The jaegers reacted promptly and opened fire on the Russians, who withdrew to the far bank of Sikrenpuro brook 1.5 kilometers away.

The village thoroughfare 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 fall 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 June 29 each year by arranging the Petru’s Praasniekka festival complete with a church service and other festivities.