Oleviste Church

There is a legend from the olden days when the rich and proud folk of Tallinn decided to build the tallest church in the world. The task of finding a builder master capable of carrying out this gigantic job proved to be challenging. But one fine day a quiet stranger appeared out of nowhere. The came to the town council and promised to build the church exactly as requested. Unfortunately the payment he asked was way over the budget. Eventually the man agreed to make a deal: if the people in the city had guessed his name by the time he finished the building, he will forego payment. The stranger worked fast and talked to no one and the church was nearly finished. The clients grew more and more anxious until finally, they sent a spy to sniff out the stranger’s name. The spy found the builder’s home and found a window to be open which allowed them to hear a woman singing a lullaby to a child: "Sleep, my baby, sleep, Olev will come home soon, with gold enough to buy the moon." They rushed to the building site where the man was attaching a cross on the top of the steeple. They called out to the builder, "Olev, Olev, the cross is crooked!" Upon hearing this, Olev lost his balance and fell all the way down. Legend tells that a frog and a snake crawled out of Olev’s mouth as he lay there on the ground. Everyone called it the devil’s work! And yet the builder’s name was given to the church, named after St. Olaf. But truth be told, the tower of St Olaf’s can be called unfortunate as it has been struck by lightning many times and burnt down to 123.7 m of height.