St. John's Church () is a large

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

parish church in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

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

. It is dedicated to

Saint John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on h ...

, a disciple of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

and author of the fourth Christian

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

. Construction began in 1862, and the church was opened in 1867.

History

From the time of the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, Estonia's primary religious tradition has been Lutheranism, with a catholic polity, and episcopal government. The national church of Estonia is the

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC; Estonian: ''Eesti Evangeelne Luterlik Kirik'', abbreviated EELK) is a Lutheran church in Estonia. The EELC is member of the Lutheran World Federation and belongs to the Community of Protestant Ch ...

, of which St John's is a parish church. The motivation for construction was the large size of the existing congregation at the neighbouring Holy Spirit parish church (sometimes translated 'Holy Ghost'), which by the mid-nineteenth century numbered more than 14,000 members. Fundraising began in 1851 to provide a new parish church in the expanding suburbs of the 'new' town of Tallinn, at the lower level below the ancient hill-top city settlement (the ''Toompea''). From September 1862 local craftsmen worked on construction, and the church was consecrated on 17 December 1867. St-John-Tallinn-altar

Architecture

The church is built in the neo-Gothic style, with soaring lancet arches, and is a very large building, spanning three principal aisles, with a tall tower at the west end, topped with a decorative spire. There is a choir and chancel, a small semi-circular

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

, and a large

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. The church is built on the eastern edge of

Freedom Square, Tallinn Freedom Square () is a plaza on the southern end of the Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia, where state functions and various concerts take place. It is bounded on the east by St. John's Church, Tallinn, St. John's Church (built 1862–67), on the sou ...

, and dominates the square, architecturally. The Master Mason and building supervisor was Carl Sensenberg, and the architect of the church was Christoph August Gabler (1820–1884), a native architect of the city.Se
this history
for details of the architect and builders. Plans to demolish the church were proposed in both the 1930s and the 1950s by architects and planners who felt its style jarred with the other buildings of Freedom Square; local opposition prevented the planned demolition in both cases.

Interior, decoration, and ornamentation

The church received many gifts at its consecration, including artworks, precious metals (chalices and alms dishes) and a bell. The church still attracts gifts of contemporary artworks, which include modern style embroidered church furnishings (altar frontals, superfrontals, and pulpit falls - unusually the pulpit wears two falls, as it has two pulpit lecterns, allowing the preacher to choose the appropriate direction to face when delivering his address), and contemporary stained glass. A modern stained glass window depiction of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, located in the

Lady Chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chape ...

, is matched by a window on the opposite side of the church depicting the church's patron saint, St John the Evangelist. The large altarpiece which dominates the east end of the church, depicting the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

, is by Professor Karl Gottlieb Wenig, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, the same training institution as the church's architect, Gabler. Tallinn asv2022-04 img14 StJohn Church.jpg, Church portal St. John's Church, Tallinn 01.JPG, Interior St. John's Church, Tallinn 03.JPG, Pipe organ Columna de la Victoria de la Guerra de la Independencia, Tallinn, Estonia, 2012-08-05, DD 15.JPG, St John's Church and War of Independence Victory Column

References

External links

Church website
(in English). {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Church, Tallinn Churches completed in 1867 19th-century Lutheran churches Churches in Tallinn Religious organizations established in 1867 1867 establishments in the Russian Empire 1867 establishments in Estonia Lutheran churches in Estonia Gothic Revival church buildings in Estonia