Birth of Christ Orthodox in Hanila

Visited August 15, 2012

We were headed back from Saaremaa and driving past the town of Hanila when I said, "Holy crap! Look at that!"

"That" was Birth of Christ Orthodox, or the ruins of it anyway.

The church was consecrated in 1889. And it was a glorious church in its day.

The building suffered from a variety of insults. Blasting for construction and the weather did the building in, and it was closed in the 1970s. They are apparently planning to try to restore it though.

St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Hanila

Visited May 21, 2012

This church was completed around the end of the 13th century, and it presumed to have been built by the Livonian Order - though there is a folk legend that it was started by a godly man around the 16th century. Documentary records extend back to 1519.

Again, I couldn't get inside! :(