St. Olaf's Church

Oleviste kirik has one of the great church spires of northern Europe and a properly wild history to go with it. Between 1549 and 1625 it was, at 159 metres, quite possibly the tallest building in the world — a beacon meant to guide ships into Tallinn harbour from far out at sea. It has been struck by lightning at least ten times and burned to the ground three times, which is why the spire you see today is a slimmer 124 metres of reconstructed 1830s Gothic.

The church interior is austere Lutheran — whitewash, tall clear windows, a simple altar — and free to visit. The real reason to come is the tower climb: 258 stone steps in a tight spiral, with rope handrails and a couple of gasping-room windows on the way up. The top gallery wraps right around the spire and gives you the definitive Tallinn photograph — red roofs of Vanalinn, the port full of ferries, Toompea to the south, and the Baltic stretching north to Finland on clear days.

The tower is open April to October only, closes in bad weather and in winds over 15 m/s, so check the flag on the door. Go early: by 11:00 in summer the queue can be 45 minutes because they let people up in batches for safety. Wear grippy shoes — the steps are worn smooth. The Pikk street it stands on has the finest guild houses in the old town, a natural loop back to Raekoja plats.

The congregation inside surprises people who expect Lutheran caretakers: since 1950 the building has belonged to an Evangelical Christian Baptist congregation, one of the largest in this part of Europe, and on Sunday mornings the nave fills with hymn-singing rather than day-trippers — which is precisely why the tower stays shut until midday on Sundays. The dedication is to Olav II Haraldsson, the eleventh-century king of Norway who became a saint. The folk tale attached to the place, about a builder named Olev who fell from the spire and had a toad and a snake crawl from his mouth, is carved on the outer wall of the Hans Pawels chapel on the Lai street side: a Renaissance memento mori of a decomposing body wreathed in vermin. Walk round and look at it before you queue — two minutes, and no guide points it out. Soviet security services used the spire as a radio and surveillance mast until 1991. There is no audio guide here and you do not need one.

The entrance you want is on Lai 50, at the north-west corner of the building; the Pikk 48 address sends people to a side door that is usually locked. Trams 1 and 2 stop at Linnahall on Mere puiestee — from there walk through the Great Coast Gate past Fat Margaret and up Pikk, five minutes. From Raekoja plats it is a flat six-minute walk straight up Pikk; from the Viru Gate about ten; from Balti jaam railway station ten minutes through the Nunne gate; from the D-terminal ferry berths roughly fifteen. A single ride bought from the driver is €2, a one-hour e-ticket on a Ühiskaart smartcard around €1.50, and a 24-hour ticket about €4.50, but for this church the ticket is usually a waste — you can walk it. From the airport, tram 4 to Hobujaama plus a twelve-minute walk beats a Bolt at €10 to €15. Do not drive: the Old Town is permit-restricted and the nearest garages, under Viru Keskus and at Rotermann, leave you a twelve-minute walk anyway.

The money side is refreshingly simple. The nave costs nothing and has a donation box by the door; the tower climb is €5, paid by card or cash at the small ticket desk inside the north entrance, with cheaper child and student rates sold at the same window. There is no online booking, no timed slot, no combined ticket with any museum, and no queue-jump option at any price — so ignore any tour operator selling a skip-the-line upgrade. Compare before you spend: the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli platforms on Toompea give you a rooftop panorama for free, ten minutes uphill, while the Niguliste museum tower costs several times €5 because the ticket includes the whole art collection. Judged as €5 for a spiral staircase into the sky, this is the best-value view in the city; judged as a photograph you cannot get elsewhere, it is the only one that puts Toompea, the port and the roofs in a single frame.

Timing decides whether this is a joy or a shuffle. Doors open at 10:00 and the first batch goes up almost immediately, so be on Lai at 09:50 and you will have the gallery nearly to yourself for ten minutes. Cruise passengers reach the Old Town from about 10:30, and by 11:00 in July the wait is the 45 minutes the page warns about; it thins again after 16:30. In July and August the 20:00 closing means a late-afternoon climb with soft light on the red roofs and the sun behind you for the Toompea shot. May, June and September are the sweet spot — long daylight, fewer ships. April and October bring gales that trigger the 15 m/s closure without warning, so have a fallback. November to March the tower is shut entirely: go to Patkuli and Kohtuotsa instead, free and open all year.

This suits reasonably fit adults, teenagers and anyone with a camera. It does not suit wheelchair users or pushchairs above the nave — there is no lift, no ramp and nowhere to leave a buggy, so one adult waits below. The spiral is narrow enough that two people pass with difficulty, and there are stretches with no window, which is grim if you are claustrophobic; the top gallery is a caged walkway with a chest-high rail, which reassures parents and frustrates photographers, since the mesh appears in shots taken carelessly. Small children under about six find the steps too tall. If you have an hour before a train from Balti jaam, ten minutes away, this fits comfortably. On a wet afternoon skip it: the gallery is open to the weather, the treads turn slick, and you will see cloud rather than Finland.

Fold it into a half-day heading north. Fat Margaret and the Estonian Maritime Museum are four minutes further up Pikk at the Great Coast Gate; the former KGB prison cells at Pagari 1 are literally around the corner, two minutes, and are the darkest and best-told small museum in the quarter. Walking back south you pass the Three Sisters merchant houses at Pikk 71, the House of the Blackheads at Pikk 26, the Great Guild Hall housing the Estonian History Museum at Pikk 17, and Maiasmokk at Pikk 16, a café trading since 1864 where the marzipan room is worth ten minutes even if you skip the coffee. Raekoja plats is six minutes on. In the other direction, fifteen minutes past Balti jaam market brings you to Telliskivi Creative City and the Kalamaja timber streets — the natural second half of the day.

Hours & entry

Church interior free; only the tower charges

Apr-Oct daily 10:00-18:00 · Jul-Aug 10:00-20:00 · Nov-Mar tower closed

What to see

• The 258-step spiral tower climb and rooftop gallery — Enter via the small door on the north side of the nave
• Vaulted late-Gothic nave with net-star ceiling — Main body of the church, best viewed from under the west gallery
• Memorial chapel of Hans Pawels — South aisle, third chapel from the entrance

Tips from the ground

• Go up before 10:30 to avoid the ticket-batching queue on summer mornings.
• The tower closes in high winds — check the black/red flag at the base door.
• Interior is free to enter; only the tower climb requires a ticket.