St. Nicholas Church (Niguliste kirik), Tallinn

Saint Nicholas Church is a basilica style church located in the Old Town part of Tallinn. It is fairly large in size, having three full aisles down the sanctuary. It is an Orthodox community of faith, which was started by merchants from Westphalia during the 13th Century, though a good deal of the structure is a couple of hundred years younger, as improvements were made during the years.

A fair bit of damage was done to the building by Soviet bombing during the Second World War, and that is partly why the local community turned it into a museum. It houses much of the surviving sacred artwork of Tallinn that survived the Protestant riots there in 1524.

Among the things to see are pieces like the Gothic altarpiece done by Herman rode of Lubeck. They feature events in the life of Saint Nicholas and Saint George. The Crucifixion scene that is located to the left of the altar is also quite stunning, though the artist is unknown. The Altar of the Blackheads is also very beautiful.

A side chapel holds the remains of Duke Charles-Eugene de Croy. It used to be a local attraction, primarily because the structure had preserved the body so well. Authorities finally buried the body in 1897 to put an end to the almost freakish attraction people had to the corpse.

There is also a beautiful old organ here that gets played about every Saturday and Sunday evening.