Description of the attraction
One of the most famous buildings in Tallinn is the Niguliste Church located between Harju and Rataskaevu streets. The first written mention of the church dates back to 1316. The church was built with money from German merchants who moved to Tallinn from the island of Gotland, and is named after St. Nicholas, the patron saint of seafarers. Previously, the building was used not only as a temple and a reliable fortress, but also as a place for storing especially valuable goods. In the following centuries, the building of the church was repeatedly rebuilt and completed.
The Niguliste Church is the only one of the churches of the Lower City, which did not suffer and did not undergo devastation during the Lutheran Reformation in 1524. The parish headman filled all the church castles with lead. Thanks to this "trick", an angry crowd of townspeople, having already destroyed the churches of St. Olav and St. Catherine in the Dominican monastery, simply could not get into the church of Niguliste. Thus, the decoration of the church was preserved.
The building suffered most of all during the Second World War, during the bombing in March 1944. However, some works of art have been preserved. Some of them include a carved wooden altar. It was made in 1482 by the famous Lübeck master Hermain Rohde. Coats of arms, stone gravestones, a seven-candle chandelier, and epitaphs were also preserved. Another surviving value is the preserved part of the famous painting "The Dance of Death", painted by the famous Lubeck artist Bernt Notke. The painting depicts people of different classes, and next to them are dancing figures of death, enticing people to dance. The picture will help everyone to think about the frailty of life and the inevitability of judgment.
To the south of the church of Niguliste grows an old linden tree called Kelch, which is considered the oldest tree in the city, more than 300 years old. According to legend, a famous chronicler, a pastor of the Church, who died during the plague that raged in the city in 1710, is buried under this tree.
Not far from the church, at the end of Rataskaevu Street, where the building abuts against the city wall, there is an unremarkable one-story house. But before, they were afraid to even walk past him. In those days, an executioner lived here. His sword was engraved with the following inscription: "The mercy and faithfulness of God are renewed every morning, raising the sword, I help the sinner to gain eternal life." But it was not only with the help of the sword that the sinner could leave the world of the living. A gallows and a wheel were depicted on the blade of the sword, thus demonstrating other methods of execution. An exact copy of this sword of justice is kept in the building of the Town Hall, in the branch of the Tallinn City Museum.
Today, Niguliste Church is a historical museum of sacred art, where an exhibition covering more than seven hundred years of medieval and post-reform Estonia is organized. In addition, the building has excellent acoustics, so organ concerts are often held here, as well as all kinds of lectures, excursions and other educational events.
