Orthodox Buildings in Estonia

This article provides an overview of Russian Orthodoxy and its churches, priories, and chapels in Estonia from the earliest known dates in the 11th century to the 1840s, when massive numbers of Estonians started to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. The movement, from the Lutheran to the Russian Orthodox Church in the southern Estonian counties, started in 1845. Until then, Orthodoxy was mainly the religion of the local Russians and Seto people, and remained influential among the poluvertsy of eastern Estonia, Russians who blended with Lutheran Estonians.

In addition to Orthodox sacral buildings, this article provides an overview of how widely Orthodoxy spread among Estonians and the local Russians, as well as among the poluvertsy of eastern Estonia. Likewise, the article also describes Orthodoxy in Setomaa, an area which was partially or wholly incorporated into Russia for centuries (specifically as a part of Pskov). However, the Orthodox sacral buildings of the Setos (such as the convents in Izborsk, Pechory and Maly, as well as churches and tsässons) are quite different from those in the rest of Estonia. Therefore, the founding of these churches and tsässons will be discussed here mainly in the framework of Seto Orthodoxy. Information about the establishment of Orthodox religious buildings is insufficient, especially regarding the early period (before the 17th century), and partly in dispute (e.g. information on the Orthodox churches that were established in Tartu in the 11th century). [1] One of the aims of this publication is to present possible, but unconfirmed, information on early sanctuaries as a starting point for future studies.

Byzantine-Russian Orthodoxy was probably the earliest form of Christianity which reached Estonia. To some extent, the ancient inhabitants of these territories were probably first christened into Orthodoxy in the 11th–12th centuries. Therefore, this occurred before Estonia fell under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church at the beginning of the 13th century. Due to early contacts with the “Russian belief”, several Old Russian loan words entered the Estonian language (e.g. rist: ‘cross’, ristima: ‘baptise’, papp: ‘priest’, raamat: ‘book’ and pagan: ‘pagan’). These words were introduced into the Baltic-Finnic languages before the 13th century and the German conquest.

The first Christian church may have been constructed as early as in the 11th century in Tartu [Iur’ev/Dorpat], a town established by Russian invaders. The claims of primarily Orthodox authors about two Orthodox churches being constructed in Tartu in the 11th century are debatable, but nor is there conclusive proof against these claims. [2] The feasibility of Orthodox churches being established in the 11th century has been confirmed by Anti Selart and Olaf Sild, who have studied the early influence of Orthodoxy in Livonia. Sild, a church historian, has written about Russian estates around Tartu in 1030–1061: “Probably a church or a chapel was also built here”; the “nearby Ugalans” (residents of Ugala district) may have been exposed to Russian church rituals and traditions. But Sild also admits that there is no Russian loan word meaning ‘church’in Estonian, although several other religious loan words of Russian origin are in use.

Overall, this might mean that it was too early for a church to actually be built. In the Russian provinces, the wide-scale construction of churches took place later, and in the 11th century these territories, close to the Russian borders, were pagan in many aspects, even though Christianisation had been instituted by the authorities. According to the existing archaeological data, the existence of a church or churches in Tartu between 1030–1061 may be assumed, but this has not been confirmed. [3] Researchers are of the opinion that there is no continuity between the Russian settlement in Tartu in the 11th century and the medieval town of the 13th century.

This means that, even if there were any churches (or just one) in Tartu in the 11th century, the buildings were probably demolished, and there is no link between these and the two Orthodox churches active in Tartu after German invasion in the 13th century – namely, the churches of St Nikolai and St Georgii. [4]

Anti Selart is of the opinion that the excavations at the Georgievskaia church and in its graveyard in Tartu, as well as other archaeological finds, demonstrate that Russian inhabitants were present in Tartu in the middle of the 13th century at the latest. The Georgievskaia Orthodox church was situated in the territory of the present-day Botanical Gardens and the Nikolaevskaia Orthodox church near the Jaani church. Nevertheless, archaeological data do not confirm the sites, let alone construction work dating back to the 13th century. [5] However, by the 15th century at the latest, these churches were present in Tartu. The written records of the two Orthodox churches in Tartu date from 1438 [6], and the churches were probably built considerably earlier. [7]

It was possible to establish that these churches belonged to merchants from Pskov and Novgorod (the Georgievskaia church was built by Novgorodians and the Nikolaevskaia church by Pskovians) due to the commercial relations of these two Russian towns with Tartu and Tallinn, members of the Hanseatic League.

In Reval (Tallinn), the Russian Nikolaevskaia Orthodox church and cemetery are mentioned in manuscripts in 1371: it was situated, at that time, between the Oleviste church and the town wall. The new Nikolaevskaia church, probably built by Novgorodians, is mentioned in written sources from 1421–1422 as being already at its present location in Vene (Russian) Street [13/8]. According to sources from the 15th century, the church belonged to Novgorodian merchants, who, along with local Orthodox priests, were persecuted by the municipality. The Nikolaevskaia church was used by Russian merchants in the 15th–16th centuries; it was strictly isolated from the public town space and shared a roof with storehouses used by merchants. According to various records, the Nikolaevskaia church was destroyed and rebuilt several times. At the end of the 17th century the Nikolaevskaia church was the only active Orthodox church in Estonian territory, which was under Swedish rule at that time. The church building stood there until the beginning of the 19th century. [9]

Yet in Setomaa, there were scores of Orthodox churches, priories and tsässons/chapels at the end of the 17th century. Of these early Orthodox buildings (built during the 14th–17th centuries) the ones that have been preserved dare two Nikolaevskaia churches in Pechory, the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Izborsk, a church on the island of Kolpino, the Malyi priory (in ruins) and church, the Senno and Tailovo churches, and several churches in the Pechory Monastery.

The oldest of the Setomaa churches still intact today is the Nikolaevskaia Church in Izborsk, built in the 1340s within the Irbosk stone stronghold. This church with its one apse, one dome, and four pillars is typical of Novgorod church architecture. In the 1930s, during the first period of Estonian independence, the congregation of this church included numerous Setos and Estonians, side by side with Russians. [10] The same applied to the mixed congregations of the Malyi and Kolpino stone churches, built in the 16th century, and the Tailovo church, completed in 1697. [11] However, now only Russian-speaking congregations are active. Over the centuries, these churches, the oldest in Pechory district, were repeatedly rebuilt and renovated, which is why they have lost some of their original appearance. [12]

The Orthodox mission may have reached Setomaa as early as the 11th or 12th centuries. While we are only able to make assumptions about the influence of earlier Orthodox churches and monasteries with regard to spreading the religion among the non-Russian-speaking people of Setomaa, the role of the Pechory monastery certainly cannot be underestimated. The cave Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was consecrated in 1473, which is considered to be the year of the monastery’s establishment.

Over the centuries, the Pechory monastery became the spiritual centre for not only Russians in the Pechory region, but also for the local Seto people. There are good reasons to talk about the increasing influence of the Pechory Monastery and, with it, the Orthodox religion, among the Setos from the 1520s: this is when the Pechory monastery became a special site for pilgrims, largely thanks to the famous Mother of God icon of Pechory. In addition to the Pechory monastery, the Malyi monastery may also have contributed to spreading Orthodox religion among Setos in the 16th century. Some researchers claim that the Malyi monastery played a vital role in Christianising the natives of Eastern Setomaa.

The Monastery of the Nativity was founded in Maly in the middle of the 16th century (according to folk tales, the monastery was already established in the 1480s by St Onufrii of Maly). The stone buildings, partially preserved, were constructed in the mid-16th century, and the Church of the Nativity, still standing to this day, was probably built before the Livonian War. Most of the monastery buildings were destroyed in 1581 by the army of the Polish king Stephen I Báthory. [13]

From the 16th century, churches were also established in the areas chiefly inhabited by Setos. The first historical records of the Värska Orthodox Church in Setomaa date back to the end of the 16th century. The old wooden church in Saatse was completed in 1673 and the Saatserinna congregation is first mentioned in 1763. The 16th–18th-century wooden churches of Värska and Saatse have not preserved. [14]

As a result of the activities of the Pechory and Maly monasteries, as well as of various churches, it is possible that Orthodoxy was quite widespread in Setomaa by the 17th or 18th centuries (and maybe even in the 16th century). During the 17th and 18th centuries and from thereon, Seto Orthodoxy was a mixture of the old religion (“Seto religion”) and Orthodoxy (especially its cult of saints). [15]

Besides the Orthodox churches and the Pechory and Maly monasteries, the Orthodox cult in Setomaa was practised in homes, natural places of worship, and village chapels, known as the Seto tsässons. Most tsässons were erected upon the initiative and at the expense of the local inhabitants and were dedicated to a specific Orthodox Church holiday or saint, after whom the tsässons were named. [16] Annual, or semi-annual, get-togethers and church services were held by priests on the day of the respective saint and church holiday. For the rest of the year, the locals used the tsässons for praying or funeral ceremonies. The oldest preserved tsässons within the Estonian territory of Setomaa are those of Mikitamäe (probably completed in 1694, according to the dendrochronological dating method) and Uusvadatsässon (probably in 1698). Some of the tsässons in the Pechory district of Pskov region (Russia) are even older.

Mikitamäe Toomapühapäeva tsässon is also the oldest wooden sacral building in continental Estonia (the Ruhnu Lutheran church, the oldest wooden sacral building on the Estonian islands, dates from 1644). Toomapühapäev, the holiday of the tsässon, is celebrated a week after Easter. The Mikitamäe tsässon, relocated and left to decay during Soviet times, was once again relocated, restored, and consecrated in 2009. The Uusvada village chapel in present-day Meremäe is the second oldest tsässon within Estonian Setomaa. According to lore, the tsässon of Uusvada belongs to Anastasiia, whose day is celebrated in Setomaa on 11 November. [17] There are also several other tsässons dedicated to her in Setomaa.

From Setomaa, the Orthodox mission spread to other parts of Estonia. The Pechory monastery is associated with the next wave of Orthodoxy to come into Estonian territory during the Livonian War (1558–1583). St Kornelii, the head of the convent from 1529 to 1570, had a special status in disseminating Orthodoxy among the Seto, and to some extent among Estonians as well. According to folk tradition and chronicles, Kornelii headed the campaign to construct churches for local residents who had converted to Orthodoxy, not only in Pechory district, but also in the present-day Võru, next to historical Setomaa. Here, Kornelii established the Church of the Nativity of the Lord in Tabina and the Church of the Trinity in Hagujärve (Kirikumäe) before 1570, during the first half of the Livonian War. It is possible that Kornelii also played a decisive role in founding an Orthodox church in present-day Valga, near Lake Aheru. [18] The churches for the newly christened Estonians and Seto were provided with clergymen, liturgical apparatus, and financial support. Kornelii’s desire to spread Orthodoxy among Estonian peasants are also been mentioned in monastery manuscripts.

Kornelii and his assistants were active in Estonia during the Livonian War, taking advantage of the advance of Russian troops. In 1558, Russian forces invaded Vastseliina, the main centre near the border of Old Livonia, which enabled them to build Orthodox churches in the surrounding areas. An Orthodox church was also probably constructed in Vastseliina. The churches in Tabina and Hagujärve (in the later Vastseliina parish) were probably destroyed by the end of the Polish-Swedish wars. There are records from 1638 that mention them as being in ruins. Their icons were taken to the Pechory monastery when Russia was defeated in the Livonian War. [19]

In addition to the churches founded by the Pechory monastery, Russians constructed churches in several Estonian towns and settlements, as well as in some frontier regions in the countryside, after conquering the greater part of medieval Livonia. In the invaded territories, the Tartu (Yuryev-Viljandi) diocese was probably founded in 1570. [20]

Churches were mostly built to suit the needs of the military and the gentry serving the tsarist government. In 1581, the Swedish king told his military chiefs to have mercy on the Russian churches and priories, which were especially numerous around Tartu. Not much information has been preserved about these: they were often field churches for the troops and buildings temporarily used as churches. What is known, however, is that in Tartu there were several churches and at least one Orthodox priory (according to Balthasar Russow, there were at least two convents at the time of the Swedish military campaign in 1578). [21]

In Narva, two churches were founded (one in the Ivangorod stronghold and the other in the town of Narva) on the orders of Ivan IV (‘the Terrible’) after the town was conquered by Russians in 1558. These churches were active until the Swedish conquest. In 1558, Russians also built an Orthodox church in Vasknarva, where an Orthodox Russian community might have existed earlier. The Holy Trinity Church in Vasknarva existed for some time under Swedish rule.

After Russian defeat in the Livonian War and the armistices with Poland and Sweden, Estonian territory was divided between Poland and Sweden. Most Russians left, and their churches were either demolished or just gradually deteriorated. Still, in several places Russian churches survived for some time at least. In Viljandi, there were two Russian Orthodox churches in 1599, probably built during the Livonian War, which were used by Lutheran and Catholic congregations. [22] In Vastseliina, the Russian priests were even paid for their work during the first decade of Polish rule.

The ruins of the medieval Nikolaevskaia church were still present at the beginning of the 17th century, when the Swedish authorities returned the ruins to the Russian community that had survived in Tartu; however, they were unable to reconstruct the church. There are also reports from the Swedish period about the construction of an Orthodox church in Vastseliina. As it happens, the Russians burnt down the Lutheran church of Vastseliina during the Russian-Swedish war that lasted from 1656 to 1661 and built an Orthodox church in front of the Vastseliina stronghold. This building, called a “Moscovite tavern”, was used as a Lutheran church after the war.

In addition to Orthodox churches built in Tartu, Tallinn, and elsewhere in Estonia during the Livonian War, churches also appeared in the Estonian-Russian borderlands and in Virumaa (mainly in present-day East Viru county) during the 16th century at the latest. The Russian community in East Viru county has a long history, as the Orthodox creed was present quite early in this Estonian region. According to Aliise Moora, Novgorodian and Pskovian priests might have christened the Russian-Votian population of the Alutaguse region as early as the 13th century.

The River Narva started to function as a distinct borderline from the 13th and 14th centuries. By the 16th century at the latest, the River Narva had become the border that separated the Orthodox and Roman Catholic worlds, but there were still some Orthodox Russians on the western bank, as well as some Votians who had converted to Orthodoxy. In 1492, the Russians built the Ivangorod stronghold on the eastern bank of the river, where some Orthodox churches were built by Novgorodians. According to one opinion, the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God may have been erected in the stronghold as early as at the end of the 15th century, but according to other assessments this took place in the 16th century. [23]

In the 16th century, the legend began to spread about the revelation of the Mother of God the miracle-working icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Kuremäe. According to one widespread version, local Russian peasants built a small wooden chapel during the second half of the 16th century on Püha Hill, the name of which was later changed to Pühtitsa. The historian Otu Liiv doubts that the chapel was built in the 16th century, also regarded as sacred by Estonians, and has offered several versions of the legend of how the Mother of God icon.

Metropolitan Kornelii of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has written about this particular event as follows:

“After being given the heavenly gift – the miracle-working icon – the devout Orthodox peasants from around Pühtitsa built a chapel on the lower part of the Sacred Hill of the Mother of God, in which the icon bestowed on them was placed. ... During those restless and troublesome years and in times of disorder and wars, the local people protected the holy icon of Pühtitsa by always restoring the destroyed chapel.” [24]

The recurrent destruction and reconstruction of the chapel was also noted by the Patriarch Aleksii II in his monograph, where he seems to refer to Swedish rule following the defeat of Russia in the Livonian War, a period that lasted until the Swedes were defeated in the Great Northern War, which broke out in 1700. Sources that mostly originating from the Lutheran Church affirm that, during Swedish rule, crowded meetings were held around the Pühtitsa chapel every year on 28 August, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God according to the old calendar. Those who convened around the chapel and reconstructed it after several devastations were probably local Orthodox Russians. The crowd that gathered at the chapel comprised of people from several parishes and even from Russia, despite prohibitions and threats. [25] The gatherings were especially large during the 18th and 19th centuries; by that time, there were also many Estonians among the prevailingly Russian crowd around the Kuremäe (Pühtitsa) chapel. [26] Estonians had probably attended these events even earlier, during the 16th and 17th centuries. The chapel was active at Pühtitsa until the 19th century. [27]

Claims have been made that the Swedish authorities also used their soldiers to wreck Orthodox chapels in Vaivara, Jõhvi, and elsewhere in present-day East Viru county. Liiv notes a complaint from the Lutheran pastor of Jõhvi from 1652, which said that, in addition to at the Kuremäe chapel, Russians held their rites near an old chapel in the village of Lähtepää on Illuka manor and near the Maarja (Mary) chapel in Viru-Nigula.

The ruins of the Viru-Nigula Maarja chapel, which is shaped like a Greek cross, the only building of this kind from the Catholic period in Estonia, supposedly date back to the 13th century. The ruins have also been associated with Russian-style church architecture. To assume that the chapel was Orthodox in the beginning might prove premature, as the construction history of this sacral building has not been subjected to archaeological research. Villem Raam has written that the plan of the chapel resembles the small churches of central Russia that developed at the beginning of the 13th century.

When Estonians supposedly attended Orthodox gatherings in the 17th century, some Russians in East Viru county converted to Lutheranism. The Orthodox Russians started to call these converts poluvertsy (half-believers), since, despite attending Lutheran churches and becoming members of Lutheran congregations, some of them also followed many Orthodox rites. [28] These were the (partly) Estonianised Russians who lived between the River Narva and the northern bank of Lake Peipsi: they had probably been living there as early as since the 13th century. [29] During Swedish rule in the 17th century, most Russians in the Iisaku area converted to Lutheranism and were Estonianised, despite the later attempts of the Russian government to re-Russianise them. Only the population of the lakeside villages remained Russian-speaking. According to Liiv’s study, the Russian-speaking population of south-eastern Alutaguse (Vasknarva area), especially the villages by the River Narva, remained only formally Lutheran during the 17th century (as they were the members of the faraway Narva and Vaivara Lutheran congregations), as there was no local Russian-speaking pastor. The people of this area attended an Orthodox church on the opposite bank of the River Narva or had priests come to them. According to the records of the Jõhvi pastor Thomas Kniper, by 1698 there were villages in this area which were not officially covered by any church: the Russians built their own chapel, which was presided over by an Orthodox priest from the opposite bank of the river. At the end of 17th century, Orthodox practices were quite widely followed in this area. The Estonianisation process for some of the Orthodox Russians probably started during the Swedish era and was even more active during Russian rule, during which the tsarist government guaranteed the local Lutheran church its former leading position among the peasantry.

Based on the above information, it can be speculated that by the end of the Swedish era, some Orthodox influences from Setomaa in southern Estonia and from Russian communities in eastern Estonia might have spread among the Estonians. But these influences were probably still weak, with the exception of multi-ethnic areas in present-day East Viru county. After the Great Northern War, Orthodox Christianity began to spread more widely as the Russians conquered Estonia. Nevertheless, the dominant faith within the territory conquered by Russian forces was still Lutheran, the rights and privileges of which were declared by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. At the same time, the free and unhindered spread of Orthodoxy was also taking place in the Baltic lands. Regarding the Lutheran Church, Swedish church law applied in Estonia until 1832. Although the dominion of the Lutheran Church was restricted by several provisions enacted by the tsarist government in order to protect the interests of Orthodoxy, the latter remained remote to the Lutheran peasantry, who were mostly under the influence of German landlords.

Until the 1840s, Orthodoxy was mainly the religion of the Russians living in these provinces; over time, it also became more and more the religion of the members of the Seto population within the borders of Pskov province. At the same time, the influence of the Orthodox Church grew in the larger communities of Estonia, and scores of new churches and chapels were built even before the conversion movement that began in 1845. [30]

When the Great Northern War started, the number of Orthodox sanctuaries began to increase in connection with the arrival of Russian forces. At first, the invading Russians either took over Lutheran (formerly Catholic) churches and redesigned them as Orthodox churches (e.g. in Narva, Tartu, Pärnu, and Tallinn) or established temporary premises for Orthodox services. In Tartu, the Jaani church was taken over by the military after the capture of the town in 1704, and Orthodox services were held there. In Narva, Orthodox services were held from 1704 to 1708 in the Dome Church, which had previously belonged to a Swedish Lutheran congregration: it was then transformed into the Aleksandro-Nevskaia Orthodox church. [31] Peter the Great attended the sanctification of the Jaani church as the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in 1708; this edifice, built in the 15th century, had belonged to the German congregation until the Russian conquest in 1704. The church was active until it was bombed in 1944. [32]

Soon some new churches were built as well. In 1704, a wooden church of the Mother of God was built in Tartu on the site of the former Nikolaevskaia church of Nikolai, along with the Georgievskaia hospital church, the fate of which is not known.

After the end of the war, Orthodox congregations were formed and churches were built in the Estonian and Livonian provinces, but mainly for the Russians living in the towns. In addition to the Tallinn-based Nikolaevskaia church [33], which had survived the Swedish era, Orthodox services were also held in some of the formerly Lutheran churches of Tallinn: in the Mikhailovskaia church on Rüütli Street from 1710 to 1716 and, starting from 1716, in the medieval main church of the former Roman Catholic (Cistercian) convent on Suur-Kloostri Street, which had been a church for the Swedish army. The latter was sanctified as the Church of the Transformation of the Lord after renovation in 1734 and served as the Orthodox cathedral until 1900, when this status was given to the newly-built cathedral of St Aleksandr Nevskii. The iconostasis of the Church of the Transformation of the Lord (by I. P. Zarudnyi) was crafted in 1718–1719 [34]; the tower was erected in 1776, and the present-day windows, main entrance and cupola were completed between 1827 and 1830.

There were new churches built as well, at first mostly for the military. The garrison church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Tallinn was constructed and consecrated in 1721. The wooden church in present-day Liivalaia Street is the oldest preserved Orthodox church in Estonia and the oldest wooden sacral building in Tallinn. The church was reconstructed in the first half of the 19th century: the building was covered with wooden boards, while both the interior and the exterior were given a period-specific neo-classic appearance. [35] In 1734, the Church of St Fedor the Commander was built in Tallinn: it existed until 1842. The second oldest building in Tallinn specifically built as an Orthodox church was erected near the port by Russian naval forces between 1752 and 1755 on the wreck of a sunken ship, according to the relevant inscription. Initially used as a naval church, this building was repeatedly reconstructed and remodelled; the building obtained its present-day size, cross-shaped ground plan and historicist façade with wooden décor in 1870. The later history of this church is one of the most interesting among the Orthodox churches in Estonia – it was damaged and turned into a gym during the Soviet era, but reconstructed again as an Orthodox church at the beginning of the 21st century. This church, situated in Ahtri Street, was consecrated in 2007 as the main cathedral of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church. [36]

Several Orthodox sanctuaries were also built in Tallinn in the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. [37] Among them is the Church of Nikolai the Miracle-Worker, which was consecrated in 1827 and still stands. It was built in Vene (Russian) Street to replace the medieval Nikolaevskaia Orthodox church, which was falling apart by the beginning of the 19th century. There was a desire to build a new church as early as 1804, but this was not done until 1822–1827 due to lack of funds. The domed church with some neo-classical features was built by L. Rusca from St. Petersburg, who was Swiss by origin.

The wooden church built in Tartu by Russian military forces in 1704 was almost in ruins by 1749. In 1752, the construction of a new church was initiated: the Church of the Ascension of Mary was sanctified in 1754. Another church was built next to it in 1771, but both burned down in the fire of 1775. The new neo-classical Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Uspenskaia), was built by the Novgorodian architect P. Spekle between 1776 and 1783 [38]; in the meantime, services were held in a school building that belonged to the military.

In addition to Tallinn and Tartu, new Orthodox congregations and churches were established in other towns and settlements before the middle of the 19th century, mainly in order to serve the local Russian population (soldiers, civil servants, and their families). Of the churches built in the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century, the ones in Pärnu, Paldiski, Kuressaare, and Võru have been preserved, whereas all the churches that were built in Narva and Ivangorod around that time have been destroyed.

In Pärnu, the Jaani church was taken over from Estonian Lutherans in 1710 and sanctified as the Uspenskii Orthodox church. It was later rebuilt as the Ekaterinskaia church. In 1710, a new Alexander Nevsky garrison church was built: this was later replaced with a new wooden building, which stood from 1749 to 1791.

The Orthodox stone church of Pärnu, which is still standing, was commissioned and funded by Catherine II, who visited the town in 1764. The church, designed by the architect P. Yegorov (1764–1768) and sanctified as the Church of St Catherine the Great Martyr in 1769, was built in the Baroque style. According to the opinion of many art historians, it is the most stylish and lavish Baroque church in Estonia.

In 1721, a tent church was erected in Paldiski in a settlement established by Peter the Great for Russian soldiers and workers (including convicts) sent to work on the building of the port and its fortifications. In 1728, a wooden church was built; from 1784 to 1787, the new Georgievskaia church, designed by J. Moor, was also built. The exterior of this stone church was clearly European. The Orthodox congregation of Paldiski is one of the most intriguing in the history of Estonian Orthodoxy, considering its national composition (Old Believers, descendants of convicts, and Estonian Swedish inhabitants) and historical background. [39]

Following the incorporation of Saaremaa into the Russian Empire in 1710, an Orthodox community of Russians also formed on the island, which was later to become the main centre of Estonian Orthodoxy. [40] The Orthodox community comprised soldiers from the Russian garrison in Kuressaare, along with Russian officials, tradesmen, craftsmen, and their families. Until the middle of the 18th century, there was neither a resident Orthodox clergyman on Saaremaa nor a congregation. Orthodox believers had their children baptised and their weddings carried out by Lutheran pastors. The Orthodox tradition of anointing children was probably carried out when an Orthodox priest visited the island. Lutheran pastors also held Orthodox services elsewhere in Livonia and Estonia due to the lack of Orthodox priests.

It was only in 1747 when a congregation was established in Kuressaare (Arensburg), after an urgent plea from the local Orthodox believers to order of Empress Elizabeth, when a resident priest was allotted to them. At first, they used a military field church, but in 1749 the wooden Nikolaevskaia church of was built in the stronghold of Kuressaare, where services were held until the completion of the current stone church in 1789. [41]

In Narva and in Ivangorod, the latter of which is situated on the east bank of the river, four Orthodox churches were built during the 18th century, three of them in Ivangorod. Three were initially regiment churches and one a garrison church. New congregations were established, in addition to the aforementioned Narva congregation of the Transfiguration of the Lord. All of these churches were destroyed. [42]

In the town of Võru, a congregation consisting of Russians was established in 1793. The stone Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, built from 1793 to 1804 (with intervals) [43], was constructed in the early neo-classicist style with some Baroque elements. It was probably designed by Matthias Schons, the provincial architect; the master builder was a local, Johann Karl Otto. The building is a fine example of early Russian provincial neo-classicism, following the Western European examples built in St Petersburg.

Prior to the 1840s, Orthodox churches were also built for Russians living in smaller rural settlements – the ones in Nina and Räpina have survived, but the wooden church in Vasknarva and the first Orthodox church of Mustvee were destroyed. [44] These churches, built in the Russian-inhabited areas around Lake Peipsi, were probably meant to act as counterweights to local Old Believer chapels erected during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Church of the Protection of the Holiest Mother of God was built in the village of Nina, the main centre of the Old Believers. The village of Nina is the also oldest surviving village of Orthodox Russians on the western shore of Lake Peipsi, as it was probably founded in the 17th century. By the time the church was built, Nina was the only almost exclusively Orthodox village in a region predominantly inhabited by Old Believers. Previously, the sparse Orthodox population had been without a church of their own. The congregation of Nina was established in 1824, and the church was designed by G. F. W. Geist, a master builder from Tartu. Construction work took place from 1824 to 1828, and the church was erected on a plot bestowed by Baron Stackelberg. The construction was funded by the state with the help of private donations, including those from local Lutheran landlords. [45] On the manor of Räpina, an Orthodox church was built by order of Empress Elizabeth in 1752. The wooden church served the Russian workers brought in to work in the local paper mill. It burned down in 1813, so the congregation moved into a wooden prayer house. In 1827, Nicholas I ordered a new stone church to be built and granted 20,000 roubles for that purpose. An independent congregation was re-established in 1828. The Church of St Zakharii and St Elizaveta was designed by G. F. W.Geist. [46]

Of the churches that have not been preserved, the wooden church of Vasknarva [47] was probably built in 1817–1818; the miraculous icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God was brought to the church in 1818. Previously, the icon had been kept in the Pühtitsa chapel, the site of the icon’s discovery. Pühtitsa was one of the most important sanctuaries for Orthodox Russians living in Estonia and farther away. The tradition of holding an annual procession on the Day of the Dormition of the Mother of God to take the icon from the St Ilia church in Vasknarva to the Pühtitsa chapel, some 30km away, commenced after 1818. [49] Metropolitan Kornelii notes:

“The procession was onerous. There was no proper road from the village of Vasknarva to Pühtitsa, only a narrow path that went through marshes and forests. The locals said that people went in single-file and waded through mud up to their knees. They took turns carrying the icon, pressing it to their chests.” [50]

In addition to the renowned Pühtitsa chapel, the Russians of Virumaa apparently had numerous other village chapels. There are references to former chapels in East Viru county in the legends collected by Otu Liiv. There were three chapels in the village of Imatu – two to honour St George and one for St Nicholas. One was demolished in the middle of the 19th century. According to Liiv, the old Orthodox chapel of the village of Sompa (Pühtitsa) was still erect in the 1920s. Liiv also noted the abundance of tsarist-era chapels in Virumaa and admitted the possibility of there being multiple chapels in one village.

In addition to the chapels and churches in Narva/Ivangorod, there was also an Orthodox church and congregation in Rakvere in 1839 – a two-storey dwelling was reconstructed as the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. The church was thoroughly remodelled in 1898–1900.

The first Orthodox church in Mustvee was established in the house of the local resident P. Boltov in 1830. The first purpose-built wooden sanctuary was completed with the aid of volunteer donations in 1839 and was sanctified to honour the icon of the Mother of God “Joy to All Sorrowful”. This sanctuary was situated in a graveyard and was demolished in 1948. [51] Some congregations were also formed without building a dedicated church. For example, in Haapsalu, an independent congregation was established in 1836, but the cornerstone of the church was only laid in 1847. Until the completion of the church in 1852, the congregation, which consisted of Russians, gathered in a state-owned building where some rooms on the second floor were adapted for religious use. A wooden Orthodox church for the military forces of Haapsalu had been extant since 1756, but it was dilapidated by the middle of the 1830s.

Most of the congregations established as a result of the conversion movement in the 1840s also had to make do with temporary premises at first. Unlike in previous centuries, these congregations mostly consisted of Estonians who converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy. By building new churches for those congregations, a new period of Orthodox sacral buildings began in Estonia.

Congregations established in Estland and the Estonian parts of Livland (southern Estonia) before the conversion movement of the 1840s were affiliated with Pskov diocese from 1725. Permits to build new churches were issued by the Holy Synod. Congregations in northern Estonia were transferred to the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of St Petersburg in 1764. Those congregations mainly consisted of Russians. Before the 1840s, Orthodox Estonians were mostly to be found in East Viru county, around lakes Peipsi and Pskov, as well as on the eastern (Russian) shore of Lake Peipsi and in Setomaa. Congregations in the Pechory region were part of the Novgorod archbishopric during the Middle Ages, together with other churches in the Pskov region. In 1589, an independent diocese of Pskov and Izborsk was founded in the course of establishing the patriarchate of Moscow. The diocese continued to exist, bearing different names, under the management of the Pskov consistory until 1919. [52]

Of the Orthodox churches in the Estonian part of Setomaa, the stone church of St. Paraskeva the Great Martyr in Saatse was completed in 1801; it is the oldest surviving stone church in the Estonian part of Setomaa, and it still has an active Seto-Russian mixed congregation. [53] Tsässons in Setomaa were mostly built during the 18th and 19th centuries; there are more surviving tsässons than churches in the Estonian part of Setomaa. In addition to the Mikitamäe and Uusvada tsässons, which were built during the last decade of the 17th century, those in Võõpsu, Rokina, and Matsuri (Säpina) have survived; according to dendro-chronological dating, they were completed in 1710–1711.

According to dendro-chronology, of the tsässons still existing in the Estonian part of Setomaa, the ones in Meldova (1753), Podmotsa (built approximately in 1760 – the oldest date on the tsässon wall) and Serga (1784) were built during the 18th century, and possibly there were some others (see Läänelaid & Raal & Valk 2005). In the 19th century, Seto tsässons continued to be built: several more were erected in the 20th and 21st centuries. [54] In addition to these wooden chapels in Setomaa, the prayer houses of the Russian Old Believers on the western shore of Lake Peipsi are also examples of the wooden sacral architecture in Estonia.

Notes

[1] Applies to work by Aleksius II, V. Berens, and other Orthodox authors (e.g. Raag 1938; EÕK 2007).

[2] See Povest 1849: 3; Drevniaia 1788: 29; Berens 1974: 393; Õigeusu hingekarjased 2002: 11; Phidas 2002: 267; EÕK 2007: 22, 58; Aim 2007: 16; Sild 1931/32: 106, 112–113.

[3] Oral data by the archeologist Ain Mäesalu (2009).

[4] The churches of Nikolai and Georgii are also known as the Church of St Nikolaos the Miracle Worker and the Church of St. Georgios the Great Martyr, or the Church of Jüri, respectively.

[5] Data by the archaeologist Heiki Valk (2010).

[6] These churches and the few Orthodox people in the town are first mentioned in a Russian travelogue about the journey of the Metropolitan Isidor (Selart 2009: 283; Sõtšov 2004: 14).

[7] Several Orthodox priests claim that these two churches were founded in Tartu in the 11th century. When Tartu was invaded by crusaders in 1224, the Georgievskaia church was badly damaged. Grand Duke Sviatoslav had it rebuilt in ten years later, according to an agreement with the municipality (Berens 1974: 393; EÕK 2007: 58; Aim 2007: 18). In general, Estonian historians do not consider these claims to be valid. Some authors even suggest that Russian merchants in Tallinn might have had their own Orthodox church in the 11th–12th centuries (see Kleinenberg 1962: 242).

[8] According to V. Berens, the wooden Nikolaevskaia Church was restored after the fire in 1433 by 1437 at the latest, at a new location, near the present Nikolaevskaia church on Vene Street (Berens 1974: 363).

[9] The new iconostasis of the Nikolaevskaia Church was made in 1685–1686. Part of it has survived up to today; some other icons were added later (see Ikonnikov 1889: 20–67; Berens 1974: 363–365; Tallinna 2009: 43; Pantelejev et al . 2002: 13–15, 28–30; Kormashov 2005: 430; http://www.orthodox.ee/indexest.php?d=ajalugu/usk (henceforth: Õigeusk Eestimaal).

[10] According to V. Berens, the new Nikolaevskaia Church was mentioned for the first time in 1341, when the altar was consecrated (1974: 76–77). According to Nikolai Raag, the limestone church was completed in 1349 (1938: 26). The Church of St Nikolai in Izborsk belonged to the monastery, which was abolished in 1764 by a decree issued by Catherine II. After that, the church was converted into a congregational church (Setomaa 2009: 329). By 1934, the mixed congregation of the church included 341 Estonians-Setos and 5,297 Russians (Raag 1938: 32).

[11] By 1934, the Kolpino congregation included 444 Estonians-Setos and 988 Russians; the Maly congregation included 1,055 and 922, respectively; and the Tailovo mixed congregation included 1,733 Estonians-Setos and 1,158 Russians (Raag 1938: 32–33).

[12] Thus, the church of St Nikolai in Izborsk has been repeatedly rebuilt and renovated over the centuries (Setomaa 2009: 240, 258; Raag 1938: 26). The Kolpino church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Kolpino Island in Lake Pskov is probably the second oldest of the preserved Russian-Seto mixed congregation churches, and it was rebuilt four times in the 19th century alone (1847, 1857, 1874, 1897). The Kolpino Church is quite possibly the same church as the Church of the Nativity, established in the 16th century by St Kornilii of the Pskovo-Pechory Monastery. The inscription on the church bell indicates that it dates back to 1558 (Raag 1938: 27). Several other churches in Pechory were rebuilt many times, especially before the beginning of the 20th century, altering their appearance to a great degree.

[13] Later, the monastery was re-established, but closed by the reforms made by Catherine II of Russia in 1764, when the Maly congregation was founded (Setomaa 2009: 214, 240, 329). The beginning of the 21st century saw the renovation of the bell tower, dating back to the 16th century (Tihhon 2007: 597).

[14] The current stone church of St. George in Värska, which was completed in 1907, was built on the same site as the wooden church established in 1877 (Raag 1938: 30–31).

[15] Traces of ancient beliefs and worldviews can be found in Seto traditions and beliefs to this day, although their heyday was well before the beginning of the 20th century (Setomaa 2009: 334).

[16] Most often, Seto tsässons are named after a saint. Rarer are the cases when a tsässon is named after a church holiday: for example, the tsässons in Mikitamäe.

[17] By way of exception, the village holiday of Uusvada is not celebrated on a tsässon holiday but on St Peter’s Day (Piitrepäiv in the Seto language), i.e. the commemoration day of Apostles Peter and Paul. Hence, the tsässon is sometimes also called the St Peter’s Day tsässon, which is obviously not correct.

[18] According to several Orthodox authors, Kornelii founded the Trinity church near Aheru Lake (in present-day Valga County) at a place called Agavere (Kase 1999; EÕK 2007: 58–60; Tihhon 2007: 20), which no longer appears on maps. The founding of Ahero church by Kornelii in Valgamaa, on the shore of Suure-Ahero Lake, was confirmed in the publication Setumaa in 1928, which claims the location of the church (probably destroyed after the Livonian War) was forested until 1860. When the trees were uprooted, walls, stone tiles, fragments of a chandelier, and a Greek-Catholic cross were found. These objects have been lost (Setumaa 1928: 356–357).

[19] Icons and church implements were taken by the retreating Russian troops from other Orthodox churches built during the Livonian War. Part of the treasure reached the Pechory monastery (Selart 1998b: 24).

[20] The first bishop was a namesake of St Kornelii. He was followed by at least two more bishops, probably before 1582 (Selart 2006: 16).

[21] A monastery known as the Monastery of the Resurrection of Christ in Tartu. Its buildings, probably built of wood, were possibly constructed after establishing the monastery between 1558 and 1570. Services were held immediately after the invasion in “our own church”, which was probably the medieval church of Nikolai. The building of a new church was initiated at once. It was probably not the only one, as Russian churches were built on the northern bank of the River Emajõgi, where a new Russian suburb emerged. The church of the Transformation of the Lord is also known by this name. It was probably a wooden church that was taken down for building materials or heating when Tartu was under Polish rule after Russian troops and most Russian inhabitants left. In the 1580s, the Russian chapel built during the Livonian War in the mercantile premises on the opposite bank of the river was still there (see Selart 2006: 10–15, 18, 20–21).

[22] A revision made by the Polish authorities lists among the churches of the town: “a small wooden church of Moscovites where nowadays Catholic services are held ...a Russian church next to the parish church of Jaani in the marketplace, where Lutheran Germans gather for their service.” (Viljandi 1999: 14)

[23] After the Swedes conquered the Ivangorod fortress in the Livonian War (1581), the church was transformed into a Lutheran church. It was reclaimed by the Orthodox congregation during the 1740s (Ivask & Sinjakova 2005: 9–10, 25). The churches of Ivangorod will not be discussed further in this article (for information regarding them, see Ivask & Sinjakova 2005).

[24] http://www.orthodox.ee/indexest.php?d=kuremae/kloos.

[25] Annual gatherings around the Pühtitsa chapel have been reported since the second half of the 17th century. There was supposedly a great gathering of people in Kuremäe every year, against which the threats made of local Lutheran pastors and the prohibitions of the provincial government were powerless. In 1699, the Jõhvi pastor reported that people came to the great heretical party, held in August, from several parishes and even from Russia (Liiv 1928: 81–92).

[26] In the 1738 visitation of the church in Jõhvi, one Russian chapel was mentionedthat was supposedly erected without the permission of the governor general and where an Orthodox priest and a lot of Russians gathered once a year, together with many (Estonian) Lutherans. The latter were prohibited from attending in the future (Liiv 1928: 81–82). The chapel in question was probably that of Kuremäe, which was supposedly held as sacred by the local Estonian peasantry even before the revelations in the 16th century, after which it became sacred for the local Russians as well.

[27] Russian peasants in Vasknarva built a new wooden chapel next to the small older one by 1876. In 1885, it became the church for the local congregation (Pjuhtitskii 1991: 3–4).

[28] For details about Russians in East Viru who were officially Lutheran but in practice followed Orthodox (and pagan) rites, see Liiv 1928: 68ff.

[29] According to the estimates of Jüri Truusmann, the Russians who were the forefathers of poluvertsy wandered there from Russia during the 16th and 17th centuries (2002: 179). According to Ott Kurs, the Orthodox Russians appeared there even earlier, from the 13th to 16th centuries (2006: 102).

[30] In the author’s opinion, the massive conversion of Lutherans to Orthodoxy that took place in the 1840s actually denoted their transfer to another church, not a change of religion. Most of the converts did not know much about Orthodoxy and many continued to attend Lutheran churches or Hernhutian congregations and followed the Lutheran rites. Orthodoxy started to take hold only during the following decades.

[31] This church, which was built during the 17th century and was closed for a while, was given to the German congregation in 1733. It was wrecked during bombing in 1944, and the ruins were finally demolished during the 1950s (Ivask & Sinjakova 2005: 11, 13, 18).

[32] The oldest known stone church of Narva was first mentioned in 1442. The church, which had been active as a Catholic and Lutheran church, as well as an Orthodox one from 1708 to 1944, was badly damaged in the 1944 bombings: its ruins were finally removed in the 1950s (Ivask & Sinjakova 2005: 11, 26; EÕK 2007: 82).

[33] The Nikolai church of Tallinn in Vene Street was a hospital for the Swedish military forces during the Great Northern War. It was reopened as a church after the Russian conquest in 1710 (Ikonnikov 1889: 20–67).

[34] The iconostasis of the church was only erected in 1726, after the old church had been renovated and reconstructed. It was finished in 1732 (Kaljundi 2005: 439). See Tiisik 1896 for details of the church.

[35] According to another version, the church was finished in 1721 and brought to its present location in 1749 (Tallinna 2009: 71).

[36] Tallinna 2009: 75–76; Berens 1974: 371, see also www.eoc.ee/est/esileht/piiskopkonnad, (bishoprics of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church).

[37] See Aleksius II 1999: 144–145. There were two churches with congregations and four military churches in Tallinn by 1799 (Berens 1974: 352).

[38] According to other records, this church, which is in Magasini Street, was designed by the Riga architect A. Pavlos. Side wings were added in the 1840s (architect A. Adamson): other reconstructions and annexes were added later (Eesti Arhitektuur 4... 1999: 37; Raid 1981: 52–53).

[39] In 1888, the Swedes from the isles of Suur-Pakri and Väike-Pakri joined the Paldiski congregation, as well as Estonians who had converted to Orthodoxy in the 1880s. According to V. Berens, they held services in Swedish and Estonian; in 1886, an Orthodox auxiliary school was established in Suur-Pakri (1974: 268–269). The connection of Estonian Swedes (incl. the Swedes from the island of Vormsi – see Plaat 1999 for details) with the Orthodox Church is one of the most interesting chapters in the history of Estonian Orthodoxy, as well as one of the most peculiar ones.

[40] About Orthodoxy in Saaremaa, see Plaat 2003.

[41] Berens 1974: 165–166; Toon 1997: 4–6; Aleksius II 1999: 148–149. The Russian community was small in number until the middle of the 19th century. It is also worthmentioning that, by the 19th century at the latest, some Dukhobors and other Russian groups were located in Saaremaa: they were deported from Russia by the authorities (Aleksius II 1999: 601).

[42] About the churches in Narva and Ivangorod, see Berens 1974: 229–248; Ivask & Sinjakova 2005; EÕK 2007: 82–91.

[43] According to other records, the Võru church, with its neo-classical silhouette and details, was completed in 1806 (Eesti Arhitektuur 4... 1999: 147; Võrumaa 1926: 461).

[44] Mustvee was declared a town in 1938, and Räpina in 1993.

[45] In the 20th century, the church was expanded by adding an annex for side altars (Berens 1974: 255–256; EÕK 2007: 76–78).

[46] From 1752–1844, the Räpina congregation had about 400 to 600 Russian members. However, after the Estonian conversion, which started in 1845, the congregation had 2,057 members in 1847 (Hindo 1937: 22–24; Berens 1974: 323–327; Aleksius II 1999: 149; Tohvri 2004: 56).

[47] Berens 1974: 82; EÕK 2007: 68. The new stone church in Vasknarva was completed in 1873.

[48] http://www.orthodox.ee/indexest.php?d=kuremae/kloos. After the Kuremäe church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was established at Pühtitsa in 1891, the miraculous icon was transferred there.

[49] The tradition of a procession from Vasknarva to Pühtitsa on the Day of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Aug 28) is still followed (Interview with Mother Prokopi, in Vasknarva, 09/14/2009).

[50] http://www.orthodox.ee/indexest.php?d=kuremae/kloos.

[51] The current stone church of St Nikolai the Miracle Worker was built in Mustvee in 1861–1864 and was designed by A. Edelson, the architect of the diocese of Riga (Berens 1974: 205; EÕK 2007: 74).

[52] On 17 June 1919, the council of the diocese of Estonia assigned a dean to Petseri County, giving him orders to organise a deanery from the 16 existing Orthodox congregations (Setomaa 2009: 326–327).

[53] About the churches in Setomaa, see Raag 1938; Berens 1974; Setomaa 2009.

[54] There were 23 tsässons and 6 Orthodox churches within Estonian Setomaa in 2011.

AUTHOR

Jaanus Plaat

Source

Amended from Folklore, vol. 47 (2011), pp. 8-42. Reproduced with permission from the author.