Around The World Without Flying: Tallinn, Estonia - Part 2

I cannot end the story of Estonia without speaking more of its rich cultural heritage. Its history goes way back beyond the horrors of war and occupation.

When we left its now stately and elegant parliament house, we walked further up the hill to the oldest church in Estonia - a very old and fascinating Lutheran church. Martin Luther’s writings had a very great influence in this region.

This church had rows of wooden pews that were like closed tall boxes, with a door at each end. As the people were shorter than we are today, this meant that when they sat down, they were totally protected from the drafts caused by the kinds of freezing winds we experienced (and remember we were there in the height of their summer). Apparently hot coals were placed in the pews just before the services to help keep the people warm. What a wonderful idea - how can anyone focus on higher ideas and ideals when frozen to the bone?

There were family shields upon the walls. The larger the shields the closer they were to the altar, because these families had donated more to the church. When different important families had secured marriages that united them, the shields bore the family crests of the each of the uniting families. Some shields had just one family crest; others of the most influential families had up to six or so.

Our guide spoke of sneaking into this church at odd times with her friends when she was a child. They were curious about religion since they knew it meant a lot to some people, although the people had been forbidden to worship under the Soviets. The Soviets did not want their beliefs to be scrutinised against any competing beliefs and thought they could turn off the faith of the people by turning all the churches into warehouses. What the Soviets did not know was important icons has been hidden to protect them, and while devout people did continue to gather at the churches amongst the packing boxes at certain times, much of their worship was practised in secret. But the children knew better than to go near the churches near Easter or Christmas, as teachers were sent to the churches to report the names of any of their students who were present. Woe betide their families if their names were on the lists!

We then wandered around the hill, and visited a couple of shops. The specialty of one shop was amber jewellery, where we saw beautiful amber with colours ranging from milky yellow to the more well-known golden hues to green and ruby red. Apparently there are considerable amounts of amber under the Baltic Sea.

Eventually, after walking through some fascinating narrow streets, we reached the old town square, where we saw the very old St Nicholas church that now serves as the town hall, and people having a great time dining outdoors under large umbrellas, warmed by gas lamps. We had lunch at long tables in the converted cellar of one restaurant, which we enjoyed immensely.

Eventually we arrived at another very old church where we were treated to some wonderful medieval music sung by a soprano and tenor in costume, accompanied by the announcer who played ancient instruments, such as a lute. Sometimes the singers played instruments as well. As their songs filled this historic sacred space, it was as though we had been transported back in time to the era of wandering minstrels, fair maidens and knights with shining armour.

As we entered this church, we noticed posies at the ends of the pews at the back of the church. As we left, a bride and some of her guests were arriving for her wedding. What a freezing, windy, wet day for a wedding, but the bride was beautiful and radiant with happiness, as all brides should be, and that is what mattered. Love is the story that is the most powerful and most enduring of all . . .