Tallinna Jaani kirik (Tallinn)

 temple, church, christianity, orthodox christianity, interesting place, listed building / architectural heritage, lutheran church/kirk, historical building, place of worship, 19th century construction, tourist attraction

Tallinn St. John's Church is located on Freedom Square in Tallinn. The church is dedicated to John the Evangelist. It is one of the earliest neo-Gothic churches in Estonia. The architect of the church was the provincial architect (chief architect of Tallinn) Christoph August Gabler. Construction of the church began in 1862, the church was completed in 1867 and was consecrated on the 3rd Advent of the same year. The impetus for the construction of Tallinn St. John's Church was the fact that the Church of the Holy Spirit, which traditionally belonged to the Estonian congregation in the historic center of the city in Tallinn's Old Town, was too small for the congregation that had grown to 14,000 members. Fundraising for the construction of the new church began as early as 1851. The Tallinn Magistrate, who had the right of patronage for the church, obtained permission to build on a plot of land that had belonged to Toomgild outside the Tallinn city wall. At the suggestion of Theodor Luther, the head pastor of the congregation from 1861 to 1867, the church was named after John the Evangelist - St. John's Church. A three-nave basilica, joined to the west by a square tower with a tent dome, to the east by a smaller polygonal choir room, to the north and south by a symmetrically arranged sacristy and vestibule. The walls of the long building are articulated with buttresses and pointed-arched windows. The pointed-arched portals have entablatures typical of Tallinn's late Gothic. The windows have wooden decorative frames in the flame style. The central nave is high; the entablatures of the cross vaults rest on hanging consoles, the side nave have star-shaped edge vaults. Inside is an eclectic organ arch and a neo-Gothic altar wall. The altar painting "Calvary" was made in 1867 by Karl Gottlieb Wenig, academician and professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. St. John's Church in Tallinn, Theodor Albert Sprengel (1832–1900) The first organ, completed for Christmas 1867, was built in 1869 by organ master Gustav Normann. In 1911–1913, the organ master August Terkmann rebuilt the organ. In 2005–2009, the organ was restored by the organ master Martin ter Haseborg (German organ company Orgelbau in Ostfriesland). Before the restoration work began, Martin ter Haseborg also built a new choir organ in the church. In addition, the organ company restored the echo organ behind the altar built in 1913 to the large organ. In the late 1930s, there was a plan to demolish the church and relocate the congregation to the Oleviste or Niguliste Church in connection with the construction of the War of Independence Monument on Freedom Square. The author of the church's stained glass windows is the artist Eva-Aet Jänes. The author of the altar and pulpit covers, completed in 2009–2017, is the textile artist Tiina Puhkan.