Tänassilma Church in Tartumaa

Visited March 26, 2011

This church was the first, but certainly not the last, church I found in ruins in Estonia. It has been a struggle to identify, but my best guess now is that it is the Tänassilma Church on the Viljandi-Tartu Road and that it was built in 1897. It seems to be Estonian Orthodox, though it was apparently Russian Orthodox in Soviet times.

But the Soviets were decidedly anti-religion, and in the 1960s, they shuttered a lot of churches, using them for storage or leaving them to decay. I suspect this is one of those churches.

Many of the churches have been reclaimed, including this one, but the money for restoration ran out in the 1980s. It is a real shame...it is a beautiful old church. I continue to be drawn to it.