Tartu St Alexander’s Church of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church

Jaani Church, located right in the heart of the city, was built in 1816 according to the design of architect Christoph Haberland and it is the only church in Estonia with an oval ground plan. The unique organ has been preserved in its original shape and it is the only instrument built by Friedrich Ladegast still left in Estonia.Interesting facts: * the organ is one of the 200 best organs in Europe; * music can be heard from the church’s bell tower at midday and midnight.

You will find this historicist red-brick church (architect Arved Eichorn), which is the first new church built in the Republic of Estonia, in the peaceful little town Elva. Tartu St John’s Congregation used to operate in Elva for some time. This is why some details of the Elva Church remind of Tartu St John’s Church – the rarely used plaster and brick imitation of a rose window on the western wall of the church refers to the medieval rose window that can be found in Tartu St John’s Church.

Tartu Old Believers Prayer House is a small and cosy house of God in the hall under the tower of a large and impressive prayer house destroyed by bombing during the war. This is the only part of the house the congregation has managed to restore by today. You can also see icons from the 19th century and the works of local 20th century icon painters in the Tartu Old Believers Prayer House.Service in Russian takes place at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

The legend speaks about the owner of Roosa manor, who had promised to build a church if he is saved from a shipwreck. When he had happily escaped the sea, he fulfilled his promise and the first church was built in Roosa in 1735.The current church is the third one in Roosa, built in 1893.The massive quarrystone walls have round-headed windows and brick ornaments, the tower has four sides and triangular gables. The altar-piece is a copy of the ″Christ on the Cross” from the St. Mary's Church in Rõuge and the organ is the first church organ the Kriisa brothers built in 1900.

Obinitsa Church was built deep in the Soviet era: 1952, when the country was led by Comrade Stalin. The people's desire for a new sanctuary (the old church was given to the school) was so great, that it bypassed the politics of the day. The Obinitsa Church's main holiday is 19 August - The Feast of the Transfiguration - and thousands of people visit the church that day to remember their ancestors and spend time with a relatives. People have been buried in Obinitsa Cemetery for at least 1,500 years. The oldest burials are marked by small stones located in the western part of the cemetery. The well-known Seto singer Hilana Taarka and the creator of the Obinitsa Museum, Lidia Sillaots, are buried in this park-like cemetery.

There is a remarkable historicist Orthodox church with quarrystone and brick walls and five onion-cupolas in Nõo small borough.The Nõo Congregation was founded in 1852 for Estonian Orthodox Christians who previously belonged to the Tartu Georgi congregation. The architecturally remarkable church is made of quarrystone and red bricks and has a bell-tower in the western side. It was completed in 1873. The interior architecture of the church is simple and the iconostasis dates back to the late 19th century.Services are held in the Holy Trinity Church in Nõo on the second Saturday of each month.

28,000 silver roubles were donated towards the construction of this Lutheran church by Russian empress Catherine II. It was blessed on 24 July 1793, when it received the name 'Catherine'. It is thought that the church - which was designed in early classicist style with baroque roots and which boasts stunning arched windows - was designed by the architect Christoph Haberlandt from Riga. Renovations in 1879 saw its tower receive a new dome, and a four-faced clock was also installed. The church has an organ built by the Kriisa brothers in 1913. You can visit the church on Sundays during mass times.

The first prayer house of Old Believers in Estonia is located in Kükita. The Kükita Prayer House was consecrated on September 14, 1740. During the war of 1812, the Cossack Old Believers donated a chandelier to the Prayer House. There were a total of 397 Old Believers in the list of parishioners of the Kükita congregation by 1833. The current Prayer House was built in 1948 in place of the one destroyed in World War II.Old Believers have services every Sunday and on all holidays (Christmas, Pascha and Epiphany).