text and images britt-arnhild
Almost a week ago I flew to Finland. Three flights from Trondheim, via Oslo and Tallinn. On the small plane from Oslo to Tallinn I had a window seat, and as we flew low over Tallinn before landing, I could see a high, green spire. I had never been to Tallinn, and was on my way to Jyväskylä in Finland, but knew that I saw the church spire of an "old friend", the St.Olav Church, or Oleviste Kirik as they say in Estonia.
An old legend tells the tale of a stranger coming to Tallinn being asked by the noblemen there if he could build the highest church in the world. The stranger asked more money that the city could pay, but agreed to decrease the price if they managed to guess his name. According to the story this was almost an impossible task, but in the end someone managed to find the place where the stranger came from. There a young woman was singing for her baby: "Sleep my baby, sleep. Olaf will soon come home and bring us gold for the entire life"
The true story is that the church was built buy Scandinavian seafarers some 800 years ago. The Norwegian King Olav II Haraldson, (Nidaros cathedral was originally built on his grave, you all know that, don´t you.....) later St. Olav, was the patron saint of seafarers, so they gave the church his name.
Once, the church tower with its spire was the highest building in the world.
High enough to attract lightning and set into fire several times. Today the spire is lower than it once was, though still it is an impressing building in the old town of Tallinn.
When we passed the church on Saturday, it was closed due to a wedding.
But we decided to go back this morning, before the service.
At first we were unable to find any signs of St.Olav, our dear, old friend, in the church, which is today owned by the Lutheran congregation in Tallinn.
We almost gave up, but on our way out we found a little pamflet about the church, and inside we found what we were looking for;
a tiny little photo of King Olav with the text:
"A bay of vaults contains a sculptured relief of St.Olav after whom the church has been named"
In we walked again. Preparations were being done for the upcoming service. We found one of the church guards and tried to ask him about St.Olav. He spoke no English, but when we showed him the photo in the panflet a broad smile spread in his face. "Come with me" he said.......with a wave with his hand.
And there, high up behind the altar
I found my friend.
Unfortunately we were not able to take part in the service.
We had to head back to the hotel, only stopping for cappuccinos and a huge Josephine cake (will be another blog post), to finish packing, and then fly back to Norway.
The flight from Tallinn to Trondheim is only a little over an hour (I had no idea),
so we are now back home,
ready for a new week.
And with a full basket of blog tales ideas.
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