Where tourists flock to 'talk to the devil'

Every year, thousands of brave tourists venture into a cave in Finland in the hope of conversing with the devil.

Pirunkirkko Cave or Devil's Church is located in Koli National Park and is famous for its supposed connection to the spirit world . A series of sounds such as drums, explosions, or clapping can be heard from the cave.

According to local legend, it is the sound of demons. Therefore, every year this place attracts thousands of visitors who hope to talk to the spiritual world. Many visitors say they believe that there are "spirits" in the cave.

Pirunkirkko Cave. Photo: Alamy Stock

In ancient Finnish folklore, the cave was a place where local sages made contact with the spirit world. Among them was a man named Kinolainen who regularly used the Devil's Church to perform magical rituals.

Riitta Rainio, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, says legend has it that Kinolainen would take his patients to the “church” to talk to the devil. The devil would find out the cause and cure of the illness. The healing ritual often involved loud shouting, stomping, drumming and clapping.

The secret of the strange sounds has been discovered by researchers at the University of Eastern. Pirunkirkko Cave has a Z-shaped crevice with a length of 34 m. The sound that people often hear is actually a resonance phenomenon, the sound is both amplified and prolonged at the natural frequency of 231 Hz. According to researchers, the sound like clapping in the cave is due to standing waves between the smooth, parallel walls of the cave.

Researchers also observed and recorded a modern-day "sorcerer" using the cave to converse with demons and found that the sounds he made were amplified by the cave's natural frequencies.

Inside the cave. Photo: Tripadvisor

This phenomenon of resonance sound often occurs in high-rise buildings but is rare in nature due to the lack of parallel solid surfaces. For this reason, scientists say, locals and tourists believe that there is a mysterious phenomenon in the cave.

Where tourists flock to 'talk to the devil'

Sounds recorded by researchers in the cave. Video: YouTube/UEF

The secret has been revealed but every year tourists still come to Koli National Park to visit this famous cave. Koli National Park stretches over 3 cities of Jeonsuu, Lieksa and Kontiolahti in the North Karelia region.

According to the park’s website, visitors can access the park by public transport such as train and bus. From Jeonsuu train station, visitors can take a taxi to Koli or a bus to Ahmovaara, which is 9 km away from the national park. There are three ways to get to the park from Ahmovaara: on foot, for those who prefer hiking, by bicycle or by taxi.

Pirunkirkko Cave is located along Rantatie Road, there is a staircase leading from the car park (located next to the road) into the cave. Visitors can also turn off from the Herajarven kierros Trail to Pirunkirkko.

In addition to exploring the cave, visitors can take part in hiking trips through the national park's trail system, camping, participating in the annual marathon here in October, cycling. Before the trip, visitors should check the national park's website to read the instructions as well as the latest updates on opening times.

Koli National Park landscape. Photo: KNP

Despite its scary name and its association with demonic legends, many visitors are not scared after visiting Pirunkirkko. "The Devil's Church sounds scary, but when I got there, it wasn't. It was just a long, narrow cave with jagged rocks all around," one visitor commented on Tripadvisor.

Anh Minh (According to Tripadvisor, Koli National Park, DM )

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