Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free with a donation box and there is no ticket for any part of the building. Photography inside is forbidden and the rule is enforced by the women who keep the church, which surprises visitors used to paying a fee for the privilege elsewhere. Walking tours of Tallinn's old town include the cathedral and cost a moderate amount; free tip-based tours leave from the town hall square daily and climb Toompea hill past the parliament and the two viewing platforms.

The cathedral is at the top of that hill, a ten-minute walk up from the lower town through the Long Leg gate, and there is no transport to arrange. Nothing needs booking. The church shop by the entrance sells icons and candles, and services are sung in Church Slavonic and Estonian. The parish keeps a noticeboard by the door listing service times in both languages, and the bells are rung by hand before the Sunday liturgy.

Visiting Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn: what to see

The cathedral was built between 1894 and 1900, at the height of the Russification campaign, and its position was a deliberate provocation: it stands directly opposite the parliament building on Toompea, the seat of Estonian power, so that the imperial church looks the government in the face. Mikhail Preobrazhensky designed it in the Russian Revival manner with five onion domes over a granite base, and eleven bells cast in St Petersburg, the largest weighing sixteen tonnes.

Inside are three gilded iconostases and icons painted on copper and zinc plates, with mosaics and stained glass in a combination unusual in Orthodox building. Estonians proposed demolishing it in 1924 as a symbol of occupation, and the plan was dropped for lack of money. Patriarch Alexy II began his ministry here in the 1950s. The base is Finnish granite, the crosses on the domes are gilded iron, and the three altars are dedicated to Alexander Nevsky, Vladimir I and Sergius of Radonezh.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from early morning to evening, with the liturgy on Sunday mornings and vespers on Saturday evenings; visitors may stand at the back during services and many do. Tallinn's old town is crowded from June to August and around the Christmas market in December, and Toompea in particular fills with cruise groups in the middle of the day. Winter mornings with snow on the domes are the photograph everyone wants.

The interior is dim and candlelit. Dress modestly; women are not required to cover their heads but many do. Allow twenty minutes. The two viewing platforms over the lower town are a two-minute walk and cost nothing, and the Dome Church, the Lutheran cathedral, is opposite. Toompea's terraces are icy in winter and the cobbled slope up from the lower town needs sensible shoes.