NIGULISTE
CHURCH
Tallinn,
Estonia
In English this church is St.
Nicholas’, but
it is usually
referred to by its Estonian name to avoid confusion with another St.
Nicholas’
Church in Tallinn. Also the Niguliste Church is no longer a functioning
church,
but rather a museum and concert hall.
The church was
founded by Westphalian
merchants from Gotland
around 1230 and was completed by around 1275. At the time it was built
outside
the City Walls and thus it once had heavy bars on its entrances and
loopholes
and hiding places in its walls. When the City Walls were completed in
the 14th
Century they enclosed the Niguliste Church and it ceased to have any
fortification needs. Of the original church little now remains standing
having
been mostly rebuilt around 1405-1420.
In 1515 the
tower was added and the
spire constructed, but
the original spire has subsequently been replaced with the more gothic
one now
present.
When the
Reformation swept through
Tallinn in 1523 the
Niguliste Church was the only one that did not succumb to destruction
and
vandalism. The congregation poured molten lead into the locks of the
church and
so the mob could not get in and it survived without much damage.
Sadly the same
can not be said in
relation to the Soviet
bombing of Tallinn in World War II. On March 9 the church was hit
directly and
fire destroyed most of the structure, only St. Anthony’s Chapel
survived inside
and only the stonework of the exterior was not raised to the ground.
The tower
continued to smoke for a month after the bombing stopped. A lot of the
interior
art was rescued by bystanders and has now been placed back into the
church.
Renovation did
not start until 1953 and
was not completed
until 1981. Then, just a year later the church tower caught fire and
was
gutted, the spire destroyed and the nave damaged.
The
church was restored but when it reopened in 1984 it did so as a museum
and
concert hall, which function it maintains to this day.
Photo
- Andrew J. Müller
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