St. Olaf's Church, Tallinn

St. Olaf's church
St. Olaf's church
Oleviste kirik
	59°26′29.1″N 24°44′52.1″E / 59.441417°N 24.747806°E
Location	Tallinn
Country	Estonia
Denomination	Baptist
Previous denomination	Roman Catholic, Lutheran
Website	Website of the Church
History
Status	Active
Founded	12th Century
Specifications
Spire height	124 metres (407 ft)

St. Olaf’s Church or St. Olav's Church (Estonian: Oleviste kirik) in Tallinn, Estonia, is believed to have been built in the 12th century and to have been the centre for old Tallinn's Scandinavian community before Denmark conquered Tallinn in 1219. Its dedication relates to King Olaf II of Norway (also known as Saint Olaf, 995–1030). The first known written records referring to the church date back to 1267. It was extensively rebuilt during the 14th century.

History

St. Olaf's Church was originally part of the united western tradition of Christianity, whose polity continues in the Roman Catholic Church today. However, during the Reformation the church became part of the Lutheran tradition. Eventually proving surplus to the requirements of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tallinn, St. Olaf's Church became a Baptist church in 1950.^[1]^[2] The Baptist congregation continues to meet at St. Olaf's today.

From 1944 until 1991, the Soviet KGB used St. Olaf's Church's spire as a radio tower and surveillance point.^[3]

Legend

There is a legend surrounding the construction of this building; The citizens of Tallinn wanted to build the tallest church in the world, but since there was a curse that ensured the death of anyone who finished its construction, no one was willing to do the work. Then a stranger appeared who asked for a large amount of money to do it. Since the city could not pay this sum, the foreigner proposed the following challenge: if they found out his name, he would forgive them the debt. For this, the Talinese sent a spy to his house who heard Olev's name in a song his wife sang. They waited for the foreigner to finish the construction and when he was putting the cross on the tower they shouted to him from below, Olev the cross is crooked, he got scared and fell to the ground with a toad and a snake coming out of his mouth, which denoted the demonic possession of this man. This fact is reflected in a mural painting on one of the sides of the church.

Height

In 1590, the total height of the church tower was 115.35–125 m. The tower has been hit by lightning around 10 times, and the whole church has burned down three times throughout its known existence. After several rebuildings, its spire is now 123.8 meters tall.^[4]

Organ

The organ was built between 1840 and 1842 by the german organist Friedrich Hermann Lütkemüller and installed by Johann Eberhard Walcker and three other assistants from the Walcker organ building company. From Lütkemüller's autobiography from 1869:

“During the construction of the two large works for St. Petersburg 1838-1840 and for Reval 1840-1842, my training progressed more and more, so that during Walcker's eight-month absence I was able to be entrusted with the management completely independently. The intonation and tuning of the Reval organ was already my work. I went to Reval with three other assistants alongside Mr. Walcker to set up the organ for the St. Olai Church in Reval.”
“The organ in the Olai Church and an eight-legged work in the country were installed in four months. I also intoned another organ in Reval, which had been repaired by a local organ builder Tanton and to which we had brought various new registers and who allowed me to carry out the entire tuning because I could do it more confidently and better than he could..."

A renovation took place in 1914. The instrument has 76 Registers, 3 Manuals and a Pedal. The actions are pneumatic.