Pielpajärvi is the old centre of Inari. In former times, there was a winter village of Inari by the shore of this wilderness lake where people gathered to stay for the winter months. The church, built in the winter village in 1760, is one of the oldest buildings in northern Lapland. The reddish church stands on a stone field lined by a beautiful birch wood. A natural-state meadow now grows on the church grounds.
The wooden wilderness church of Pielpajärvi is the second church in this very spot. All the remains of the first church, which was completed in 1646, have disappeared, and only the decaying foundations of a few buildings are left from the winter village. The Pielpajärvi Wilderness Church and the nearby areas form a nationally valuable cultural heritage area. It has also been classified as a regionally valuable landscape area.
The Pielpajärvi Wilderness Church can be visited throughout the year. Information on directions is available on the Inari Hiking Area's webpages.
Reference: Outdoors.fi
The first written record of church in Danmark locality date back to the year 1291. Close to the church are several stones with a Christian text and cross inscribed. The oldest parts of the present red-brick church are from the 1300s. In the late 1400s the church was enlarged to the appearance it has today. The church has been modified both internally and externally several times, among other things after the fires in 1699 and 1889. There are lot of well-preserved mural paintings in the walls.