St Olaf's Church (Oleviste kirik in Estonian) is
situated to the north of the Old Town (Vanalinn), looking out on Lai
street where this meets Oleviste street. It was named after
Norwegian King Olaf II Haraldsson, who adopted Christianity and
tried his best to established it in Norway. Pagan tradition was too
strong for him, however, and he was overthrown and killed in battle.
After his death he was canonised as St Olaf the Holy, and the cult
of his name spread throughout Scandinavia.
There is also a popular tale concerning the
church's naming in which the townspeople accepted an offer by an
anonymous builder to erect the church building for free if they
could guess his name. When they did guess (by having a boy follow
him home and listen into his conversations with his wife), and they
called it out to him just as he was fixing the cross on the steeple,
the shock caused him to fall to his death and the church was named
in his honour.
The church is first mentioned in records in 1267,
when Queen Margarethe of Denmark granted privileges in connection
with the church to the female Cistercian convent of St Michael. A
new or heavily-rebuilt church was constructed between 1330-1364, at
which point the separate tower was connected to the main building.
This was badly damaged by a fire in 1433 and was largely replaced by
a new, larger, construction in 1436-1450.
The rebuild necessitated the demolition
of the old nave and chapels and resulted in a three-nave basilica.
The new spire made it the tallest building in the world at that
time, but it was again damaged, this time by the Lutheran
Reformation in 1524, which started at St Olaf's. The church's
artistically valuable interior was destroyed by a fervent mob, fresh
from conversion to the new ideals of reform. From here they went on
to attack the Old Town's other churches.
On 29 May 1625, the tower was struck and
destroyed again by lightening, but quick rebuilding saw the church
re-open three years later, and a new tower was completed in 1651.
The church's interior was ruined by a further lightening strike on
16 June 1820. The authorities decided to rescue the church from the
resulting fire, rather than the neighbouring buildings, resulting in
heavy local damage and a preserved church.
The church itself was restored within twenty
years, supported by Russian czars, Alexander I and Nicholas I. In
1950 it was turned over to a combined Evangelical/Baptist
congregation which still worships there. The tower is open to
visitors and although the climb up the sixty metre-high tower can be
hard work, the views over the whole of Vanalinn make it well worth
the effort.
