Churches

Naissaare church, standing on an island 12 km from Tallinn, was constructed in 1934 to the designs of architect Karl Tarvas. It was consecrated in 1938. It has a very simple but masterful architectural design with traditional use of materials and good proportions. The design combines a...

Jõelähtme Church is one of the oldest churches in Estonia. The church was originally made of wood, and it was established during the period of the Danes’ conquest at the beginning of the 1220s. In written records, the Church of Blessed Virgin Mary in Jõelähtme is first mentioned in 1241, and...

St. Laurentius Church on the island of Prangli is one of the smallest Estonian wooden churches that was completed in 1848. Quite likely, a chapel used to stand on the same spot already a couple of centuries earlier. According to a legend, it was built by Finnish seal hunters who got stranded on the...

Built in 2007, this is the first and so far only Lutheran church built in Estonia since World War Two. It was designed by architects Martin Aunin and Erkki Ristoja. Situated on the waterfront, the church was consecrated on 25 July 2007 and was erected in memory of all those who have lost their...

This Medieval fortified church was possibly built soon after the city of Tallinn was established around the 1230's. The pulpit (Tobias Heintze), its Baroque iconostasis (1774), a painting titled “The Entombment of Jesus” (Otto Zoege von Manteuffel), as well as wheel crosses in the church wall and...

This church, commissioned by the lord of the local manor, Karl von Mellin, was constructed between 1775 and 1777. The saint's name chosen for it was selected in his honour. It was consecrated on 3 September 1777 by Kose dean Johann Heinrich Schwabe. It was partly reconstructed in 1863, with the...

The Church of Blessed Virgin Mary in Nissi was built in 1873. It is a historicist church with a 52.5-metre-high tower. Its magnificent stained-glass windows St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter the Apostle were made in Riga (H. Beyermann, 1902). The church has stylish pseudo-gothic furnishings and...

Harju-Jaani Church was consecrated on 13 October 1863 (architect Friedrich Wilhelm Alisch). The donation was made by local landlords and rural municipalities. The stone altar covered with boarding originates from the old church (13th-14th centuries), and the altar fence was attached in 1864. The...

St. Nicholas’ Church in Paldiski was built in 1842. This Classicist church, in which the Soviet Army reigned for half a century, has also been used as a culture centre and later, as a warehouse. By now, the congregation has refurnished it and the altar painting “Resurrection” (1888), for example,...

Saha Chapel used to be one of the oldest ecclesiastical centres built on the site of an ancient sacred place of Estonians. According to a folk story it is even 50 years older than the City of Tallinn and it was established by bishop Fulco. The exact time of establishment of the chapel is not known...

Built: 1885 A pseudi-Gothic church (architect Friedrich Axel von Howen) built on a mediaeval foundation. The interior reflects the colours of the Estonian flag. A very old church bell. A wheel cross on the buttress, unique stone crosses and a memorial (1989) to the first Estonian Bible in the...

The construction of the biggest mediaeval country church in Harju County probably started immediately after Northern Estonia had been subjected to the king of Denmark. There is no data about the first years of the church, but in about 1280, a spacious quadrangular chapel that forms the choir room...

Rannamõisa Church was built in 1901 and consecrated as a church in 1905. Until 1937, the church belonged to the Keila congregation and was called Ranna Chapel. It became an independent congregation in September 1937 by a decision of the Consistory. Ranna church yard is a registered historical sight...

Built: 14th–17th centuries. This 700-year-old church with massive walls, dedicated to the Holy Cross of Christ, used to belong to the Padise Monastery. The unique semi-circular tower was created by the collapse of the original round tower in the 17th century. A bulky pillar and a low triumphal arch...

Kuusalu Church, dedicated to protodeacon martyr St. Lawrence, is considered to be one of the oldest stone churches in Northern Estonia. It was most likely the Gotlandish Cistercian monks who started building a house of God on the boundary of their property next to the holy springs in Kuusalu at the...

The chapel of Tallinn Diaconal Hospital, designed in 1891, was a little building in the yard of a large complex of the Tallinn Magdaleena Hospital. Pickwa St. Michael Chapel was moved to Pikva because it was a disruptive factor for the local real estate development. It was a chapel in the...

The high belltower of St. Matthias' Church in Harju-Madise, which was built in the 15th–18th centuries, doubles as a lighthouse for Pakri Bay. According to a legend, the church was built by a Captain Matthias who was rescued after being shipwrecked. The legend is confirmed by the location of the...