Niguliste kirik
The Nikolaikirche ( Estonian Niguliste kirik ) is one of the landmarks of the Estonian capital Tallinn .
It is located at the foot of Tallinn Domberg south of Nikolaistraße and east of Ritterstraße .
history
The church was founded between 1230 and 1275 by Westphalian merchants who moved to Tallinn from Gotland Island . Since Tallinn was not yet fortified at that time, a fortified church was built as the center of the settlement. It was not until the 14th century, after the city wall was completed , that the Nikolaikirche became an ordinary parish church. It was consecrated to Saint Nicholas , the patron saint of merchants, sailors and fishermen.
Between 1405 and 1420 the church got its current Gothic appearance, when the Hanseatic city of Reval had come to some wealth. The central nave towered over the side aisles and the church was expanded into a full basilica . In 1515 the tower was raised and decorated with a late Gothic helmet . In the 17th century the tower was strengthened and a baroque helmet was added, which was extended to its current height of 105 m in the following decades.
The Nikolaikirche was the only Tallinn church that was spared the iconoclasm during the Protestant Reformation in the city in 1523/24 . Allegedly, the church council is said to have handed over the church keys as requested. The church leaders, however, filled the keyholes with molten lead, thus preventing the agitated masses from entering the church.
During the Second World War , the Nikolaikirche was almost completely destroyed. Much of the interior of the church fell victim to the devastating air raid by the Red Army on Tallinn on March 9, 1944 and the subsequent fire. Most of the art treasures could, however, be evacuated in time. The church was rebuilt between 1953 and 1984.
Today the Nikolaikirche is part of the Estonian Art Museum . The most important sacred treasures of Tallinn are exhibited here. It also serves as a concert hall with impressive acoustics . The Estonian musician Andres Uibo has been the concert organist of the Nikolaikirche since 1981 .
Art treasures
The most important work of art in the Nikolaikirche is the dance of death by the Lübeck artist Bernt Notke in the Antonius Chapel. Only about a quarter of the originally 30 m long work from 1508/09 has been preserved. The dance of death in the Nikolaikirche is probably the medieval replica of the Lübeck dance of death in the Marienkirche there , which however fell victim to the Second World War.
The high altar of the Nikolaikirche was made between 1478 and 1481 in the workshop of Hermen Rode from Lübeck. It is an order from the Brotherhood of the Blackheads and cost 1,250 Marks Lübisch at the time . The paintings on the two-winged altar depict the life of St. Nicholas. The middle part and the outside of the wings show over thirty figures made of wood, the so-called gallery of saints. In the background on the right outer wing is the oldest painted city view of Lübeck .
Other works of art are the Marien Altar (around 1500) and the Altar of the Holy Family, which was made around 1490 in Jan Borman's workshop in Brussels . The Altar of the Passion of Christ (also called Antonius Altar) was made by the Bruges painter Adriaen Isenbrant on order of the Brotherhood of Blackheads around 1510/15 . It was later supplemented by the Reval master Michel Sittow .
The silver jewelry of the guilds and guilds as well as the Brotherhood of Blackheads are exhibited in the silver chamber of the Nikolaikirche .
Charles Eugène de Croÿ
A bizarre curiosity of Estonia was laid out in a side chapel of the Nikolaikirche : the mummy of the Tsarist Field Marshal Count Charles Eugène de Croÿ . In 1700 he commanded the Russian troops in the battle of Narva . Captured by the Swedish army, he died a few years later in Tallinn. Since no one wanted to pay for his funeral, the mummified corpse remained on display in the Nikolaikirche and became one of the city's attractions there. The authorities only had him buried in 1897.
Funerary chapels
A number of burial chapels were added to the north side of the church in the 17th and 18th centuries, among others for Bogislaus von Rosen (1651), Gustav Adolf Clodt von Jürgensburg (1673) and the governor Duke Peter August (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg- Beck) (1773).
To the south of the church is the chalice lime tree where the pastor and chronicler Christian Kelch is said to be buried.
literature
- Freytag, Hartmut: The dance of death of the Marienkirche in Lübeck and the Nikolaikirche in Reval (Tallinn). Edition, commentary, interpretation, reception. Cologne 2002 ( ISBN 3-412-01793-0 )
Web links
Coordinates: 59 ° 26 ′ 9 ″ N , 24 ° 44 ′ 33.4 ″ E