St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral, Tallinn

Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul
The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Püha Peetruse ja Pauluse katedraal
Façade of the Cathedral
59°26′17″N 24°44′56″E / 59.4381°N 24.7488°E / 59.4381; 24.7488
Location	Tallinn
Country	Estonia
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Status	Active
Founded	1841
Consecrated	26 December 1845
Architecture
Functional status	Cathedral and Parish church
Architect(s)	Carlo Rossi (architect), Erich Jacoby, Franz de Vries
Architectural type	Basilica
Style	Neo-Classical and Neo-Gothic
Completed	1844
Administration
Province	Estonia
Parish	Tallinn
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Philippe Jean-Charles Jourdan
Rector	Tomasz Materna
Vicar(s)	Alfonso Di Giovanni, Igor Gavrilchik, Ain Peetrus Leetma

St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral (Estonian: Peeter-Pauli katedraal) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Administration of Estonia. It is situated on Vene street in the Old Town district of Tallinn, Estonia.

History and architecture

Catholicism was introduced to Estonia by force via the Northern crusades and dominated religious life during the Middle Ages. However, following the Reformation during the 16th century, Lutheranism took its place as the dominant faith, and during the time of Swedish rule in Estonia, Catholicism was banned.^[1]

Following Sweden's loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire during the Great Northern War, religious freedom was introduced by the new authorities. In 1799, the Catholic parish had grown large enough to be granted the former refectory of the long-since closed St. Catherine's Monastery as a place of worship on the site of the present church. In 1841, designs were made for a proper new church building for the site, which had grown too small. The architect was the well-known St. Petersburg architect Carlo Rossi. He designed a neo-Gothic basilica, without an apse, with a neo-classical exterior.

Between 1920 and 1924, the main, western façade received its present look, a work by architects Erich Jacoby and Franz de Vries somewhat deviating from Rossi's original façade. The interior of the church still reflects Rossi's design, however the wooden, neo-Gothic decoration has been removed. The cathedral has undergone a series of renovations, the latest in 2002–2003.^[2][1][3]

The cathedral incorporates several works of art, including works by local Baltic German artists Carl Sigismund Walther [et], Robert Salemann [de] and a copy of a painting by Guido Reni.

See also

• List of cathedrals in Estonia

References

External links

• Media related to Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tallinn at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website

This page was last edited on 24 November 2022, at 13:39