Noarootsi church and clergy house

Noarootsi church and clergy house

St. Catherine’s Church in Noarootsi was probably built in the 13th or 14th century. It was first mentioned in 1500. Noarootsi church is unique among the churches of Lääne county for its structure that has three naves and no vaulting. The original church was lower than the present one, it had no steeple and served as a fortress church as there were no windows on the north side of the church.

Noarootsi church was badly damaged in the Livonian War. According to local folk tales the Poles kept their horses there. The church was restored in the 17th century. The steeple also dates from this period. The church underwent extensive reconstruction in the second half of the 19th century.

A notable feature of the church’s interior is the stone font for the storage of holy water, which is preserved next to the south portal. In the choir, there is a dolomite baptismal font and an epitaph to Martin Winter, the priest of Noarootsi (active 1613-1638), made in 1630 by the latter’s brother, stonecutter Joachim Winter, who worked for the De la Gardie family.

The church also has a plaque commemorating Thure Emanuel Thorén, a Swedish missionary in Noarootsi in the 1870s, who was the founder and head of the Paslepa Teachers’ Seminary, and whose work ushered in a religious awakening in Noarootsi. The church displays a stone signed by Carl XVI Gustaf, the reigning King of Sweden, in honour of the King’s visit to Noarootsi and the church in 1992.

The pulpit of the church (1656) was made in the workshop of master craftsman Elert Thiele. The altar is probably from the second half of the 19th century while the altar painting depicting Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (adapted from Heinrich Hofmann) is by an unknown artist from 1911. The chandeliers date back to the 18th century and were a gift from Riguldi manor. 

Initially, the services in the Noarootsi church were in Swedish, but when Estonians arrived in the parish, services in Estonian were also introduced. During the holidays there was also a third service scheduled for Germans. During World War II  a large part of the Estonian Swedes left for Sweden. The congregation carried on, but now took to using Estonian. In 1988, when the first Noarootsi Days were held and the Swedes from Noarootsi were able to visit their homeland in the border zone for the first time, a service in Swedish was held in the church again after a long pause. 

The oldest part of the cemetery surrounding the church is just around the church. It features a number of sun crosses. A number of prominent figures in cultural history are buried in the cemetery. Among those who rest there are painter Karl Johann Emmanuel von Ungern-Sternberg (1773-1830), who was born in Paslepa Manor, parish priest Gustav Carlblom (1761-1814) and sacristan and teacher Johan Nyman (1859-1933). Gustav Friedrich von Rosen (1924-2007), who was born in Saare manor and rebuilt it.

The churchyard contains the memorial to those from Noarootsi that fell in the Estonian War of Independence. The memorial was first erected in 1935, destroyed in 1946 and reopened on 24.06.1990. In 1999 a memorial stone to those who fell in World War II was unveiled in front of the memorial.

Noarootsi clergy house, across the road from the church, was built in the early 17th century and is one of the oldest wooden buildings to survive to date in Lääne county.  The clergy house is a single-storey, timber-framed building. It has a high hip roof that was covered with straw until the 1950s. In the second half of the 18th century, the clergy house was given two magnificent green masonry heaters. The baroque door panels probably date from the same century.

Noarootsi priests

Noarootsi church has had a number of priests who have left their mark on history. Among the most notable of them was Issac Hasselblad from Mariestad (Sweden, 1638-1682), who founded the first known peasant school in Noarootsi – the first of its kind in Northern Estonia. Hasselbladd led the effort to teach local peasant children to read, write and calculate. His son Christian (1682-1718) and grandson Carl Friedrich Hasselblad (1722-1728) would both go on to serve as priests in Noarootsi. The latter one already became German and changed his name to Hasselpblatt.

The Carlblom family has also produced three generations of priests. The first of them was Jonas Laurentii Carlblom (1755-1774) from Karleby, Sweden, who later became the priest of the St. John’s congregation in Haapsalu. Carlblom was one of the compilers of an Estonian-language book of sermons published in 1779.

His son, Gustav Carlblom (1789-1814), started as a priest at the St. John’s Church in Haapsalu before coming to Noarootsi in 1789. He played an important role in the promotion of literacy in the parish of Noarootsi and in bringing literary culture to the people by distributing free textbooks and religious books to children. He also collected and published church historical materials from church archives, compiled the first printed lexicon of Estonian pastors, published the history of the city of Haapsalu in the journal Esthona, and published the first review of Estonian church history.

The third Calblom in Noarootsi was Gustav’s son Johannes (1815-1861), who continued his father’s work in promoting literacy among the people of Noarootsi parish. He was a member of the Estonian Literary Society, took an interest in meteorology, conducted meteorological observations and wrote about the earthquake that occurred on 16 November/28 November 1827. As with the Hasselblad family, the third generation of Carlbloms became German.

In the 1930s the priest Sven Danell, who later became the bishop of Skara in Sweden, lived in the clergy house. Danell arrived from Sweden in 1930 as an assistant priest for the congregation of Sutlepa, Paslepa and Riguldi. Two years later he became a fully qualified priest. He also taught religious education at the Swedish Upper Secondary Private School in Haapsalu. In 1937, he was forced to return to Sweden, because the Estonian government did not renew the residence permits of foreigners. His book ‘Guldstrand’ (English title: ‘Golden Beach’) is a fond look back at the seven years he spent in Estonia and the people he met here, whether Swedes, Germans or Estonians.

The tale of building Noarootsi church

Russwurm recorded the legend of the construction of Noarootsi church in his 1855 book ‘Eibofolke’.

It says that Noarootsi church was originally supposed to be built on Kirkebacka hill in Hara, but everything that was built during the day was mysteriously torn down at night. Two black bulls were then put into a yoke and allowed to roam – the church was built where they stopped.

However, it was prophesied that if seven brothers entered the church at the same time, it would collapse and bury the congregation.