Valjala church

Valjala Church
Valjala Church Location in Estonia
58°24′29″N 22°47′20″E / 58.40817°N 22.78878°E / 58.40817; 22.78878Coordinates: 58°24′29″N 22°47′20″E / 58.40817°N 22.78878°E / 58.40817; 22.78878
Country	Estonia
Denomination	Lutheran
History
Founded	1227 (1227)
Founder(s)	Livonian Order
Architecture
Style	Romanesque Gothic

Saint Martin's Church of Valjala is a Lutheran church in Valjala, on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia. It is the oldest stone church on Saaremaa and possibly the oldest surviving church in Estonia.

Christianity was brought to Estonia through the Northern Crusades, and construction of Valjala church started immediately following the Livonian Crusade, in 1227. The first church was a smaller chapel built on the site of an ancient stronghold. The chapel was later extended and still forms the nucleus of the current church. Remnants from this earliest period of the building include Romanesque fragments of murals depicting six of the apostles inside the church. In 1240, the church was expanded and it got its present form of a single-nave church. The builders stayed true to Romanesque forms as evidenced by the round-arched portals of the church.

In 1343 the church was damaged during the St. George's Night Uprising. Restoration works and other additions to the church henceforth were more clearly Gothic in form. For example, the windows, the vaults of the upper parts of the building, and the blind arch decoration on the west façade are typically pointed. The builders during this time possible came from Varnhem Abbey in Sweden. The church was clearly built to be able to function as a refuge in times of troubles, as well as a church. There are rooms above the vaults that are constructed so that they could only be reached using a ladder which could be pulled up. Also, an internal passageway just under the windows on the inside of the walls could be utilised to repel an advancing enemy.

During the later part of the 14th century, the church got a new polygonal apse. The tower, which was probably not completed until the 17th century, was probably also started during this period. Tombstone fragments of archaic, trapezoid form have been discovered in the walls of the tower, and it is believed that they may stem from pre-Christian times. They are rather unusual in that tombstones of this type have otherwise only been discovered in western Estonia.