Church of the Holy Spirit

The Church of the Holy Spirit or Pühavaimu in Estonian was built in about 1300 as a chapel for the poor. Henceforth it was used as a municipal chapel and the meetings of the town council sometimes took place here. Once it was Roman Catholic, but transferred to Lutheran following the Reformation. It also witnessed the earliest sermons given in Estonian. It was the pastor of this church, Johann Koell, who published the first known Estonian-language book, his Catechism some ten years after the Lutheran Reformation. On the church wall you can see a beautiful carved clock. It is the oldest in Tallinn and built in 1684.