Rooslepa chapel

The history of the Rooslepa Chapel dates back to the 17th century, when a wooden chapel was built by the road fork leading to the northern villages of Riguldi.

Rooslepa chapel was one of the three filial churches of Noarootsi church, as it was a long way from Riguldi to the Noarootsi church. Other chapels were located in Sutlepa and on the island of Osmussaare. The priest of Noarootsi visited the Rooslepa chapel one Sunday a month, when he would baptise babies, marry couples and also perform burial services. At other times, services were conducted by self-appointed preachers. As Riguldi was a completely Swedish-speaking area, the services were in Swedish. The congregation got its own priest at the start of the 20th century.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the congregation had outgrown the old wooden chapel and a larger stone chapel was built in its place. The old chapel was dismantled and taken to Sutlepa and from there it has now moved to the Estonian Open Air Museum in Tallinn.

Construction of the stone chapel began in 1834 and was completed a year later. The chapel was built at the expense of Mathias Rösler, the steward of Riguldi manor who was born in the village of Rooslepa. The supervising builders were carpenter Johan Klingberg, painter Anders Åberg, mason Anders Söman and foreman Johan Treiberg.

The new chapel was 23.8 metres long and 11.4 metres wide, without a separate choir. There was a tower at the western end of the chapel with two bells.

One unusual feature of the chapel was that the pulpit was built on top of the altar. The chapel also lacked a separate sacristy. A walled off part to the left of the altar served as a sacristy instead. The chapel had 425 seats. In 1863, Rooslepa chapel received its first organ, which was replaced by a larger one in 1905.

In 1932, the chapel was visited by Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (later King Gustaf VI Adolf). This visit was commemorated by a limestone tablet signed by the crown prince. The tablet was kept at the chapel and later taken to Noarootsi church while the Rooslepa chapel stood in ruins.

During World War II, a large part of the population of Riguldi fled to Sweden, taking church property (communion accessories etc.) with them. The items were deposited at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, where they were initially kept in secret for fear that the Soviet Union might claim them.

After the Swedes left, services continued until 1949, when the chapel was closed. Rooslepa chapel started to fall apart in the 1970s. First, the interior was looted, then the roof started to collapse, because the sheet metal of the roof was either stolen or damaged by storms.  By the 1980s, the tower had collapsed and only the chapel walls were left. The walls were conserved in the 1990s at the instigation of the Swedes and the rural municipality of Noarootsi had the chapel rebuilt. In 2006, the chapel was restored and was reconsecrated on 12 August 2007.

The church property that had been taken to Sweden was brought back to Estonia from Stockholm in 2013 and handed over to the local congregation in Noarootsi. The items were put on display in Rooslepa chapel, but two weeks later, in the early hours of 22 July 2013, thieves broke into the chapel and took most of the items – 17 of them. Although there was little hope of finding the stolen items, the police managed to return them to the rural municipality of Noarootsi two and a half years later. A tip-off led the police to the stolen church property. They were found stashed away in Lääne county. The thieves were never caught.