Kautokeino church

One of Kautokeino’s sights is certainly Kautokeino church, which is one of the churches with the most churchgoers in Norway, and it is used particularly enthusiastically at Easter. The church was built in 1958, after the previous one was burned during the war. The church building is located on the east side of the Kautokeino river, south of the center of Kautokeino. Access to the site, which is a well-known tourist destination, is via county road 7976 and E45, it is located on the other side of Rema 1000.

Fun Fact!
Christianity is very strong in Kautokeino, the majority of the population is baptised, confirmed and married in the Christian faith. Since ancient times, the holiday for gathering has been at Easter. Until the 18th century, the Sami had their own belief in nature. After that, the missionary work began in full together with the rise of Laestadianism in the Sami congregations. The missionaries were harsh and destroyed many places that people had a special relationship with. They also collected both sieidi and drums (rune bombs) if possible, or they burned them. This led to the old Sami form of religion gradually disappearing completely from around the middle of the 19th century. Joik is the oldest form of music in Europe. It is said that that form of music has nothing to do with God and anything that deals with anything other than honoring the Lord should be kept out of the church. This means that it is not acceptable to joke in Kautokeino church even today.