St. OlafâÂÂs, or St. Olav's Church (; ), is a Baptist church in Tallinn, Estonia. Originally a Roman Catholic Church, it is believed to have been built already in the 12th century by Scandinavian merchants, decades before the Kingdom of Denmark conquered Tallinn (Reval) in 1219. Its dedication relates to King Olaf II of Norway (also known as Saint Olaf, 995âÂÂ1030). The first known written records referring to the church date back to 1267. It was extensively rebuilt during the 14th century.
St. Olaf's was originally a Catholic church, however, during the 16th century Reformation in Estonia it became part of the local Lutheran tradition and had a large, mostly German-speaking congregation until 1939. As a result of World War II, the church was left without active congregation, and the Soviet occupation regime handed the building over to Baptists in 1950. Since that time, St. Olaf is a Baptist church that continues to conduct services.
From 1944 until 1991, the Soviet KGB used St. Olaf's Church's spire as a radio tower and surveillance point.
There is a legend surrounding the construction of this building; The citizens of Tallinn wanted to build the tallest church in the world, but since there was a curse that ensured the death of anyone who finished its construction, no one was willing to do the work. Then a stranger appeared who asked for a large amount of money to do it. Since the city could not pay this sum, the foreigner proposed the following challenge: if they found out his name, he would forgive them the debt. For this, the Tallinners sent a spy to his house who heard Olev's name in a song his wife sang. They waited for the foreigner to finish the construction and when he was putting the cross on the tower they shouted to him from below, Olev the cross is crooked, he got scared and fell to the ground with a toad and a snake coming out of his mouth, which denoted the demonic possession of this man. This fact is reflected in a mural painting on one of the sides of the church.
A medieval craftsman claimed it was 84 fathoms tall. One source assumed he was referring to Rhineland fathoms, which would've made it 159 metres tall, which would be the tallest building in the world at the time. Although he was probably referring to local fathoms, and in 1590 the total height of the church tower was probably 115.35âÂÂ125 m. The tower has been hit by lightning around 10 times, and the whole church has burned down three times throughout its known existence. After several reconstructions, its spire now stands 123.8 meters tall.
The organ was built between 1840 and 1842 by a German organist Friedrich Hermann Lütkemüller and installed by Johann Eberhard Walcker and three other assistants from the Walcker organ building company. From Lütkemüller's autobiography from 1869:
A renovation took place in 1914. The instrument has 76 registers, 3 manuals and a pedal. The actions are pneumatic.