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Estonia's history (by centuries) Tourist attractions Toompea castle & Nevski Cathedral The Great Guild & The Brotherhood of the Blackheads & The Holy Spirit church The Dominican monastery & The church of St Peter and Paul & St Catherines passage |
The Dome church
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The Dome church, the cathedral of St Mary the Virgin dates back to the 13th
century and is the oldest church in Tallinn. It might be interesting to know
that the tower was not built until the 18th century. The reason for this was that the
Dominicans who originally designed the church thought that a tower would be
a light-headed exaggeration. The Dome church is also very interesting as an
architectural landmark. Almost all important architecture styles are
represented here. The church has a gothic exterior, baroque interior,
renaissance sarcophagi and a classicist organ.
Inside theres a valuable collection of about 110 Baltic-German noblemens
epitaphs in the form of coat-of-arms.
Specially valued are the grave monuments to the Swedish military-leader
Pontus de la
Gardie and the grave monument to the Russian admiral Samuel Greigh.
When the Swedes under the leadership of de la Gardie conquered Narva during
the Livonian war, more than 7000 people were killed, and these were mainly
civilians. And the legend says that due to this its possible to see a
knight on a white horse riding at Lasnamäe during the night. Even the Devil
didnt want de la Gardies soul. These are the private lodges of the
Patkul and Manteuffel families, who were powerful and rich enough to pay for
them. The altar and several epitaphs have been made by a great sculptor and
artist, Christian Ackermann in the 17th century.
Otto Juan von Thuve is also buried in the Dome church.
During his life-time von Thuve was a very sociable man. He loved to eat,
drink and conquer the hearts of beautiful women. On his death-bead he asked
to be buried next to the main portal of the church. One version says that this
way all the church-goers would step on his grave when entering and leaving
the building and thus his sins would be redeemed, but the other version
claims that even as dead Otto von Thuve still wanted to peek under the
dresses of beautiful women.