John's Church (Tallinn)
Coordinates: 59 ° 26 ′ 1.4 ″ N , 24 ° 44 ′ 43.6 ″ E
The Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church of the Estonian capital Tallinn ( Estonian Tallinna Jaani kirik ) is located on the eastern side of Freedom Square ( Vabaduse väljak ), on the edge of Tallinn's old town . The church in the neo-Gothic style, dating from the second half of the 19th century, is named after the evangelist John .
history
The original church of the Estonian-speaking Evangelical Lutheran parish in downtown Tallinn was the medieval Holy Spirit Church . In the middle of the 19th century, with over 14,000 believers, it had become far too small.
In 1851 a fundraising campaign began to build an Evangelical Lutheran church on the outskirts of Tallinn's old town. The start of construction was then delayed by more than a decade.
The builder of the Johanniskirche was the Tallinn Magistrate. The Tallinn Cathedral Guild provided a plot of land outside the city walls at the old city moat free of charge. The property turned out to be less than ideal as the subsoil is soft there. Numerous oak logs had to be rammed into the ground for the foundation.
On September 8, 1862, the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Empire , to which Estonia then belonged, the foundation stone for the church was laid. Five years later the church was completed.
On the 3rd Advent of the year 1867, December 17th, the Johanniskirche was solemnly consecrated. The new parish received numerous donations on the occasion of its foundation: a bell, altar candlesticks, chandeliers, a baptismal font and a valuable beaker.
The choice of the name goes back to the first parish pastor, Theodor Dietrich Wittgenstein Luther (1812–1869). He was the son of the influential elder of the Great Guild , Dietrich Martin Luther (1772–1861).
construction
The Tallinn St. John's Church is one of the earliest neo-Gothic buildings in what is now Estonia. It was planned by the Estonian governorate architect and Tallinn native Christoph August Gabler (1820-1884). The work was directed by the stonemason Carl Sensenberg .
The building is kept in a friendly light yellow. A square tower with a tent roof adjoins the three-aisled basilica with its high central nave and the arcades in the west . In the east is the rather small polygonal choir . In the north is the generous vestibule , in the south the relatively large sacristy .
In the interior, the pointed arches give the building a Gothic appearance. The round rosettes above the main portal and in the vestibule are also characteristic .
Interior decoration
The darkened altar is the work of the master F. Kühne. The altarpiece “Christ on the Cross” from 1867 was made by the Petersburg painter Karl Gottlieb Wenig (1830–1894). The pulpit is a masterpiece by GJ Moikow. It is crowned by a sound cover made by the master carver F. Sporleder.
The first organ in the church came from the Estonian organ builder Gustav Normann . It was completely redesigned between 1911 and 1913 by the organ master August Terkmann and given a pneumatic action. From 2005 to 2009 it was extensively renovated by the East Frisian organ builder Martin ter Haseborg . Martin ter Haseborg also designed the new organ in the choir room.
The modern stained glass windows in St. John's Church are the work of the Estonian artist Eva-Aet Jänes (* 1942).
Freedom Square
The course of the integration of the church into the urban development was not very happy. The Freedom Square received its current appearance in the 1930s. Elements of functionalism and Art Deco dominate there . The neo-Gothic St. John's Church looks out of place next to it.
In the 1930s and 1950s there were repeated plans to demolish the church, since it was architecturally a foreign body. However, the projects were never realized.
Web links
- Official website (Estonian, English, Finnish, German)
- Description of the church (German)