Nigula, Lääne County

58.96694423.774167Koordinaten: 58 ° 58 'N, 23 ° 46' O

Nigula is a village (Estonian küla ) in the Estonian rural community Taebla ( Taibel ) in Lääne. The place is also known colloquially Lääne- Nigula.

Location and History

Nigula has 177 inhabitants (as at 31 December 2011) .. It is 14 km from the county capital Haapsalu ( Haapsalu ) situated on the River Taebla ( Taebla Jõgi )

Nigula was since the 14th century, the center of the parish Lääne- Nigula ( German parish Pönal ).

Church of Saint Nicholas

Well known is the church dedicated to St. Nicholas of Nigula. The construction of today Evangelical Lutheran house of worship began at the end of the 13th century. At the single-storey longhouse a square west tower with a portal in the late Baroque style was added in 1760. Its present appearance of the 52.2 m high tower with its 26.7 meter high helmet in 1882.

A 1809 fire destroyed large parts of St. Nicholas, which was then built from 1816 to 1824 in redesigned form. The interior is from the 19th century. The neo-classical altar dates from 1823 and is the work St. Petersburg artists. The late Gothic altar predecessor of 1510 comes from the Lübeck master Hans von der Heyde. He is now in the Tallinn Nikolai Church. Today's two altar paintings are copies of two works by Leonardo da Vinci.

The first organ was probably installed in the 1850s in the church, possibly built by Carl August Tanton. The present instrument from 1926 comes from the Estonian organ builder Gustav Terkmann.

Since 1992 there has been a church partnership between the St. Martin Parish Nortorf in Schleswig -Holstein and the parish of Nigula.