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Saint Mary' Cathedral is a Lutheran Church located in the Old Town of Tallinn. Original cathedral or Dome Church was made entirely of wood and was built in 1219. Its current appearance was acquired over centuries of renovations and remodeling. The interior of the Saint Mary's Cathedral contains burials of prominent figures of Tallinn and date back to 13th- 18th centuries. Additionally walls of the cathedral are covered by plaques and noble coat of arms mention noble people from the 12th- 20th centuries.
The first church on the present site was probably built in 1219,
shortly after the capture of what is now Toompea at the Battle of
Lyndanisse. It was a Danish foundation and was probably the first
Christian church in mainland Estonia.
The first church building
was made of wood. With the arrival of Dominican monks from the Danish
Ribe Monastery in 1229, the church was replaced by a stone building. In
1233 the monks died in clashes between Danish vassals and the Order of
the Brothers of the Sword. A letter to Rome from the same year asking
for the church to be rededicated is the first written record of the
church on Toompea. The single-nave building was completed in 1240 and
dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Since this year it bears the name
Domkirche. At the beginning of the 14th century, extensive
reconstruction work began, which expanded the church. Starting in the
1330s, the church was remodeled into a three-nave Gothic-style basilica
based on the model of the Gotland churches. A hundred years later the
work was completed.
The church was badly damaged in the great
fire on the Domberg on June 6, 1684. Several arches and the sanctuary
collapsed. Art-historically valuable stone carvings were destroyed.
Shortly after the fire, the church was largely restored to its original
state under the direction of master builder and carpenter Daniel Bickel,
with the stonemasonry being carried out by Johann Gustav Stockenberg,
while the new baroque furnishings, including coat of arms epitaphs, the
high altar and the pulpit decorated with figures of the apostles, mainly
came from the workshop of the Tallinn master Christian Ackermann.
In 1685, the bell founder Detlof Riedeweg created both the Marian
bell and the smaller Salvator bell, which were later included in the
national register of cultural monuments of Estonia as an individual
monument.
A work by the sculptor Heinrich (Hinrik) Martens is the
Calvary, the "Golgotha Group", a four meter high crucifix, which was
donated by the elder of the cathedral guild Hermann Rahr in 1694 and
gilded by the master painter Lorenz Buchau, flanked by sculptures of
Mary and John.
In 1778/79 a new baroque church tower was added at
the western end of the nave. Two of the four church bells are from the
17th century, the other two from the 18th century. The interior of the
church is dominated by two family boxes from the 18th century (by Patkul
and by Manteuffel). The altar painting "Christ on the Cross" was created
by the Düsseldorf painter Eduard Gebhardt (1866).
Tallinn
Cathedral is also known for its numerous tombstones from the 13th to the
18th centuries and for its stone sarcophagi from the 17th century. Among
them are the tombs of Pontus de la Gardie and his wife Sofia
Gyllenhielm, Carl Huringson Horn (both by Arent Passer), Adam Johann von
Krusenstern, Samuel Greigh, Caspar von Tiesenhausen, Hermann Rahr,
Reinhold Otto von Taube and Otto von Uexküll.
The walls of the
cathedral church are decorated with the 107 coat of arms epitaphs of the
Baltic German nobles of Estonia.
Only the walls of the square choirs have survived from the original
structure; there is no exact data about the church itself. Perhaps in
the last third of the thirteenth century. its new three-nave,
four-travey longitudinal part with buttresses was erected. The wide and
short church, obviously, was planned as a hall. Consoles for vaults in
the spirit of the Cistercians were installed in the interior. Portals
were made at the same time. From the sculptural decor of the choir, the
capstone, apses, the naturalistic floral forms of the ornament, are akin
to the decor of the church of St. Catherine in Karya. In the 1st half of
the XIV century. the longitudinal part was supplemented by a western
empor (box) in a blank wall and, obviously, then tetrahedral pillars
were erected here. The vaults in the side naves appeared in the 2nd half
of the 14th century. The central nave in the form of a basilica was
covered with vaults only in the 15th century. The forms of its girth
arches are close to those of the monastery church in Padise. In the XV
century. a bell tower was built in the outer corner between the choir
and the southern nave, as well as several chapels. The cathedral was
badly damaged in a fire in 1684, which destroyed most of its stone
decor. In 1778-1779. a tower with a Baroque shako was built in the
western part of the building (architect K. L Geist).
The main
structure of the modern building has three naves, of which the central
one has a continuation in the form of an altar part. On the western
side, above the central nave, there is a church tower that functions as
a bell tower. Visitors have the opportunity to climb the tower to admire
the panorama of the city below. In addition, there are several
outbuildings to the main building.
Near the southern wall in the altar there is a tombstone to the
commander Pontus de la Gardie, recognized as the highest achievement of
Renaissance art in Estonia. It was created in 1589-1595. sculptor and
architect A. Passer and consists of a sarcophagus and a wall epitaph.
Other tombstones also belong to the cutter of this master: K. von
Tizenhausen (1599), K. Gurn (1601) and others.
Inside the
building there are:
pulpit (1686) by K. Ackerman, which is held by a
wooden sculpture of Moses with 10 commandments;
aba-vois (1730);
the altar (1696, made by K. Ackerman according to the drawings of
Nicodemus Tessin, the younger);
altarpiece "Christ crucified" (1866,
German painter Eduard Gebhardt);
triumphal arch group with the
crucifixion of Christ;
the bed of the Patkul family in the classical
style (beginning of the 18th century, opposite the pulpit);
the
baroque lodge of the Manteuffel family (17th century, located in the
south nave);
organ with 49 registers; was made in 1878 by master
Friedrich Ladegast, rebuilt and enlarged in 1913-1914 by the Sauer
organ-building firm (Wilhelm Sauer) (Frankfurt an der Oder), restored in
1998. The instrument has 73 registers, divided into three manuals, and a
pedal; is a valuable example of German romantic organ building.
the
obelisk of F. von Tiesenhausen (1806, located in the choir to the left
of the altar, master Demuth-Malinovsky),
the burial of I. F.
Kruzenshtern with his wife Julia von Taube (northern nave, author
Exner), Samuel Greig (northern nave, Carrara marble, author Giacomo
Quarenghi), Pontus de la Gardie with his wife (in the choir, to the
right of the altar, author A. Passer), etc.
tombstone of the
butchers' shop of the Dome Guild (under the organ, 1708);
tombstone
of the shop of shoemakers of the Dome Guild (under the organ, 1716);
the oldest tombstone of Voldemar Sorsever in the northern nave (1370);
107 armorial epitaphs, mostly in the Baroque style;
image of Christ
the Giver ("Come to me").
Buried in the cathedral are:
Samuil Karlovich Greig - Russian
naval commander, participant in the Battle of Chesma.
Pontus
Delagardie - Swedish commander, hero of the Livonian War.
Ivan
Fedorovich Kruzenshtern is a Russian navigator, under whose leadership
the first Russian round-the-world expedition was carried out.
Near the main entrance is a stone slab with the inscription: "Tomb of Otto Johann Thuve, landowner of Edise, Vääna and Koonu, 1696 A.D." According to legend, Thuve was a particularly lustful man who enjoyed lavish parties with wine, women and songs. On his deathbed, however, remorse overcame him. So he asked to be buried on the threshold of the cathedral so that the godly people who kneel in prayer at the entrance to the church may save his soul. However, the mocking Tallinn vernacular claims that Thuve wanted to look under the skirts of young women even after his death.