Niguliste Museum
Medieval St Nicholas' Church holding Estonia's main collection of ecclesiastical art
Niguliste Museum occupies the former Church of St Nicholas in Tallinn's Old Town, begun by German merchants in the thirteenth century and rebuilt and extended through the later Middle Ages. Soviet bombing in March 1944 and a subsequent fire gutted the building; restoration ran for decades, and in 1984 the church reopened as a museum and concert hall rather than a place of worship. It is now a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, alongside Kumu and the Kadriorg Art Museum.
The collection concentrates on ecclesiastical art from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, shown in the nave, side chapels and ambulatory of the church itself. Best known are Bernt Notke's late fifteenth-century Danse Macabre fragment, Hermen Rode's vast altarpiece of St Nicholas and the silver chamber of the medieval guilds. A glass lift installed in the tower carries visitors to a viewing level above the Old Town roofs, and the acoustics of the nave support a long-running programme of organ recitals.
Highlights
- Bernt Notke's Danse Macabre, a rare surviving medieval death dance
- Hermen Rode's high altarpiece of St Nicholas, completed in 1481
- Silver chamber with plate from Tallinn's medieval guilds
- Glass lift to a viewing platform in the church tower
