St. Laurence's Lutheran Church In Kuressaare

St. Laurence's Lutheran Church In Kuressaare / Beskrivning

Three buildings dominate the central square of Kuressaare. Next to the two buildings dating from the period of Swedish rule - the town hall and the public weights house - stands the church of St. Lawrence.
This was not the first church to be built in the town: there had been a medieval church, which was destroyed in a fire, near the stronghold on the site of the present castle park. Probably quite soon after the fire, a building site was acquired near the central square and the building of the new church seems to have been completed in the 1630s. It was a modest rectangular building, the walls of which make up the nave of the present church. The church was damaged by fire in the Great Northern War (in 1710) and was reconstructed during the subsequent decades (consecrated in 1729). In the course of the reconstruction work a choir was added. In 1828 the church was again ravaged by fire and was rebuilt under the supervision of the architect Heinrich Löwener in 1835 - 1836, when it acquired its present appearance.