Kihelkonna St. Michael's Church

Kihelkonna St. Michael's Church, (Estonian: Kihelkonna Mihkli kirik) sometimes simply Kihelkonna Church, is a medieval Lutheran church on Saaremaa island in western Estonia.

Kihelkonna St. Michael's Church
Kihelkonna St. Michael's Church
58°21′36″N 22°02′08″E
CountryEstonia
DenominationLutheran
History
Foundedc. 1250 (c. 1250)
Founder(s)Livonian Order
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek
Architecture
StyleGothic

History

The church was founded sometime around 1250 as a joint undertaking by both the Livonian Order and the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek as a part of crusader efforts to Christianise Estonia. The church was built at a strategic location, by a harbour of some importance and at a road connecting western Saaremaa with the rest of Estonia. Originally, the church was designed to have a western tower but after a rebellion in 1260-1261, at which time the church was still unfinished, the plans were scrapped. The present-day tower only dates from 1899. Apart from the tower, the building of the church finished sometime in the later 1260s.[1][2]

Architecture

Of the original medieval furnishing, very little remains. The interior is dominated by high, white-washed vaults. The altarpiece dates from 1591, and depicts the last supper. In addition, the church has a fine organ and a carved epitaph dating from 1650 by a local carpenter, Balthasar Raschky.[2]

The exterior of the church is today dominated by the neo-Gothic tower, but the church also has an external bell-tower, dating from 1638. Such free-standing belfries were once quite popular in Estonia, but today the one at Kihelkonna church is the only one surviving.[1][2]

See also

References
  1. Viirand, Tiiu (2004). Estonia. Cultural Tourism. Kunst Publishers. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9949407184.
  2. "Kihelkonna Church". Saaremaa Museum. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
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