The Church of Holy Spirit, Tallinn, Estonia

The Church of Holy Spirit is the only sacred building from 14th-century Tallinn preserved its original form. The church was originally founded as part of the neighbouring Holy Spirit Almshouse, which tended to the town's sick and elderly. Throughout Medieval times it remained the primary church of the common folk. First Estonian-language sermons were held there, and the famous Livonian chronicler Balthasar Russow worked as a teacher there in the late 16th century.

Before entering the church, take a look at the façade, where there is clock that has been measuring time since the 17th century. The interior is richly decorated an exquisite example of wooden sculpture from the Gothic era. The altar, commissioned from Berndt Notke in 1483, is one of the four most precious medieval works of art in Estonia. Services in English are held every Sunday at 15:00. Musical hours are held each Monday starting at 18:00.

References:

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User Reviews

Eileen Weed (9 months ago)
It is worth the small 1.50 Euro entry fee to see the inside of this church from the early 1300s! There is interesting art from many hundreds of years ago, plus the fee helps the maintenance. I was in Tallinn on a 9-hour stopover on a Norwegian Getaway 9-day Baltic Cruise in August 2019. Rick Steves "Scandinavian & Northern European Cruise Ports" Guidebook was a great help and this church was part of the self-guided "Tallinn Walk" in the book.

Claudiu (11 months ago)
Old 13 century church which is very simple in architecture but has a very overwhelming woodwork interior that is a must see when in the city I had the pleasure of being accompanied during my visit by an organ repetition that sounded wonderful The highlight is the woodwork and paintings, very well crafted, you really feel taken back half a millennium

Julius Golstein (12 months ago)
Great ancient Church with mystical spiritual atmosphere and old metaphysical symbols the Human history...

Patricia Medeiros de Campos (2 years ago)
Church from the 13th century - small but really well preserved and really worth the visit. If you are lucky, you can enjoy a free organ concert

Mel Steenkamp (2 years ago)
Beautiful, well preserved, its an Estonian jewel. The woodwork is truly amazing, the detail is from a different era, that would be difficult to replicate. It is a must see, no picture can come near the experience to see this place in person. The entry fee is reasonable. I will visit this church every day, because there's too much detail to be taken in, in one visit.

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The Palazzo Colonna is a palatial block of buildings built in part over ruins of an old Roman Serapeum, and has belonged to the prestigious Colonna family for over twenty generations.

The first part of the palace dates from the 13th century, and tradition holds that the building hosted Dante in his visit to Rome. The first documentary mention notes that the property hosted Cardinal Giovanni and Giacomo Colonna in the 13th century. It was also home to Cardinal Oddone Colonna before he ascended to the papacy as Martin V (1417–1431).

With his passing, the palace was sacked during feuds, and the main property passed into the hands of the Della Rovere family. It returned to the Colonna family when Marcantonio I Colonna married Lucrezia Gara Franciotti Della Rovere, the niece of pope Julius II. The Colonna"s alliance to the Habsburg power, likely protected the palace from looting during the Sack of Rome (1527).

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The older wing of the complex known as the Princess Isabelle"s apartments, but once housing Martin V"s library and palace, contains frescoes by Pinturicchio, Antonio Tempesta, Crescenzio Onofri, Giacinto Gimignani, and Carlo Cesi. It contains a collection of landscapes and genre scenes by painters like Gaspard Dughet, Caspar Van Wittel (Vanvitelli), and Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Along with the possessions of the Doria-Pamphilij and Pallavacini-Rospigliosi families, this is one of the largest private art collections in Rome.

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