Dome Church, Tallinn

Dome Church, Tallinn tickets: which one to buy

Saint Mary's Cathedral, also called the Dome Church, stands on Toompea Hill in the upper part of Tallinn's Old Town, and a small admission is charged for visitors, with an extra fee for climbing the tower. It is the oldest church in mainland Estonia and the Lutheran cathedral of the country. The tower, reached by narrow stairs, gives views over the Old Town rooftops and the sea.

Walking tours of Tallinn's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, include the cathedral along with the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Toompea Castle, the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms, the Town Hall Square and Saint Olaf's Church. Cruise ships call in Tallinn in summer, and the Old Town is busy then. The cathedral is an active church, and organ concerts are held regularly. Combined tickets for the cathedral and tower are sold at the entrance.

Visiting Dome Church, Tallinn: what to see

A wooden church was built on Toompea by the Danes in the early thirteenth century, soon after they conquered northern Estonia, and a stone church followed in 1240. The present church dates largely from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a baroque tower added in the eighteenth century. After a fire in 1684 destroyed much of the interior, it was refurnished in the baroque style. The church was for centuries the burial place of the Baltic German nobility, and its walls are covered with more than a hundred carved and painted coats of arms, epitaphs and memorials, making it a striking gallery of heraldry. The church also holds tombs, including that of the Swedish commander Pontus de la Gardie and the admiral Samuel Greigh, and a baroque pulpit and altar.

The organ, built by the German firm Sauer in 1914, is highly regarded. The tower's stairs are narrow and steep, leading to the bells and a viewing gallery. The pulpit, from 1686, is carved in a baroque style with figures. The altar painting shows the Crucifixion. The coats of arms, painted in bright colours on wooden panels, record the families of the Estonian and Livonian nobility. Some of the church's gravestones in the floor date from the medieval period. The church was known as the Toompea church of the nobility, while the lower town had its own churches for the merchants. The organ concerts are held on Saturdays and in summer.

Dome Church, Tallinn opening hours and the best time to go

The cathedral is open daily in summer, with shorter hours and closing on some days in winter; the tower may close in bad weather. Tallinn is busiest from June to August, when cruise passengers fill the Old Town during the day; evenings and early mornings are quieter. The Christmas market on the Town Hall Square is one of the most beautiful in Europe.

Winters are cold and dark. The Old Town Days festival in late May or early June brings medieval-themed events. Allow about twenty minutes for the cathedral, plus twenty for the tower, and walk to the viewing platforms nearby. The Kiek in de Kok tower museum and the Bastion Tunnels below Toompea, a short walk away, explain the city's fortifications.