Harju-Risti is a village in

Lääne-Harju Parish Lääne-Harju Parish ( et, Lääne-Harju vald) is a rural municipality in northern Estonia. It is a part of Harju County. The municipality has a population of 12,865 (as of 1 January 2019) and covers an area of 645.71 km². The population de ...

Harju County Harju County ( et, Harju maakond or ''Harjumaa''), is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in Northern Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the so ...

in northern

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Harju-Risti Church

The church dedicated to the Holy Cross was founded by the monks of

Padise Abbey Padise Abbey ( et, Padise klooster) was a former Cistercian monastery in Padise in Harju County, Estonia, settled in 1310 by the dispossessed monks of Dünamünde Abbey in Latvia. It was converted into a fortress after its dissolution in 1 ...

around 1330 as a chapel. Following the St. George's Night Uprising construction was halted until the early 15th century. During the

Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pr ...

, the church was damaged; however, the greatest threat to the building has been that it stands on unstable ground and has been sinking into the ground. In the 17th century, the ceiling of the choir collapsed, followed by parts of the unusual, round western tower. In this way the church acquired its present oddly-shaped look. The interior of the church as tombstones from the 15th century, a Renaissance pulpit by Tobias Heinze and Estonia's oldest church bell (14th century).

References

Villages in Harju County Kreis Harrien Gothic architecture in Estonia {{Harju-geo-stub