St Nicholas Lutheran Church in Haapsalu

Visited March 26, 2013

Happy Easter!

In celebration of the holiest day in the Christian calendar, I bring you St Nicholas Lutheran Church in Haapsalu, part of the Haapsalu Episcopal Castle.

I visited this church as I headed out to Hiiumaa for our America Days events there. I will be coming back to the castle this summer for some events we have scheduled (stay tuned, Public Diplomacy fans!), and I promise some additional (hopefully interior) pictures then.

This cathedral was constructed around 1265, and famous for the White Lady who believed to appear at the window of its baptismal chapel on full moon August nights (note to self...visit in August!).

Apparenlty during the reign of Ösel-Wiek Bishop, according to the monastary's rules, every canon was supposed to lead a chaste and virtuous life, and access of women to the Episcopal Castle was forbidden by threat of death. Legend has it that a canon fell in love with an Estonian girl and secretly brought her into the castle. She hid by dressing as a choirboy and remained a secret for a long time, but when the bishop visited Haapsalu again, the young singer caught his attention and he ordered an investigation of the singer's gender.[

When he discovered the singer was a girl, the bishop and his his council decided to entomb the girl in the wall of the chapel, and to imprison the canon, where he was starved to death. The girl was walled into a cavity in the wall, left with only a piece of bread and a mug of water. Her cries could be heard for some time, a warning to anyone else who might try such a trick. The legend says her soul could not find the peace and this is why she appears on the Baptistery’s window (pictured below) to grieve for her beloved and to prove the immortality of love. I think she appears because of the horrific way she died. Let's just say I'd be inclined to haunt a place where something like that happened to me!

The place still functions as a church (despite the ghost!). The congregation was dispossessed during the Soviet times, but the church was reconsecrated and restored in 1990.

Visited again May 8, 2013

I took a few other pictured while visiting today, including the one above of the window the White Lady appears in.



St Lawrence Lutheran Church in Kuressaare, Saaremaa

Visited February 27, 2013

St Lawrence Lutheran Church in Kuressaare is located in downtown Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa. I have seen it several times, but never had a chance to take a picture until this regional outreach trip.

The church was built in 1733 and rebuilt in 1836. The interior is apparently original, though I couldn't get inside because they were actually doing some restoration work while I was there. Apparently it houses the medieval baptismal font from Anseküla church.

Church of the Transformation of the Lord in Lümanda

Visited February 27, 2013

So I know it has been a while since I posted. I have had two problems. The first is, I have been too busy to go see many churches. And the second is, of those churches I have seen, I have been too busy to post about them. Good Friday seems like an appropriate time to start catching up.

So I actually saw the Church of the Transformation of the Lord in Lümanda a month ago. I was doing regional outreach to Saaremaa, and this chuch was near a school I spoke to about Black History Month.

The church was constructed in 1870. I don't know much more about it than that, but it is a nice little church out in the country.

Lutheran Church of Blessed Virgin Mary in Jõelähtme

Visited: February 3, 2013

I have passed by the Church of Blessed Virgin Mary in Jõelähtme several times on my way to Narva, but have never had the time to stop. I finally managed to today on my way back from the Jagala Waterfall (which is currently frozen...very cool).

The original church is among the oldest in Estonia, an old wooden structure built in the 1220s. The current building was constructed in the 14th century, with a choir room added in the 15th. The steeple was added in 1912 to replace the previous one that was destroyed by fire in 1910.

Prophet Elijah Orthodox Chapel in Malvaste, Hiiumaa

Visited: Not yet!

This post is totally cheating...for two reasons. First, it was built in 1906, so really it falls outside my established date range. It is too new.

And second, I haven't actually visited it yet.

My section runs the Embassy's Regional Outreach program, where we send teams of one American and one Estonian out into the Estonian counties. And this picture was snapped by one of my staff members during a visit to the island of Hiiumaa because she knew I liked churches and this one is just cool.

Prophet Elijah Orthodox Chapel is a simple, one room building with a straw roof on its chapel section. It was actually moved to the site in 1925.

I do plan to visit. I'll update this post when I do!

EDIT:
I am a cheater no more! I visited this church on June 14, 2014 during a trip to Hiiumaa. So finally I have some pictures of my own!

 

St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tallinn

Visited November 4, 2012

This is the second church I visited along my walk in the Old City last month. Again, I didn't get a chance to go inside.

St. Nicholas is an Orthodox Church built in 1827.

This is the first classical church building in Tallinn, but was preceded by a church for Orthodox merchants located on the same site in the Middle Ages. The church has the oldest Estonian iconostasis, which is a sculptured wall, this one consecrated by the Russian Tsarina Sophia Alekseyevna in 1678.

From the pictures on the website, the inside is amazing.

St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Tallinn

Visited November 4, 2012

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...I have taken a few (but not many) church pictures but haven't had a chance to post.

So here is one I spotted while walking around Tallinn's Old City.

This is the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, built in 1844.

The Cathedral is a Roman-Catholic pseudo-Gothic church with a neo-Classical facade. It was built on the foundation of the former refectory of a medieval Dominican monastery. The altar painting “The Ascension of Virgin Mary” is apparently a gift from Bavarian King Ludwig I, but I wasn't able to get inside to take pictures.