Estonian Churches. St Lawrence’s of Nõo

St Lawrence’s of Nõo was built at the end of the 13th century as a three-ailed defensive brick structure, with the first reference to it dating from 1319. The original hall church has suffered in several wars, but still largely retains its original appearance. The dominating exterior feature in the west wall, the Gothic main portal, is quite similar to that of Tallinn’s St Nicholas’s Church. The gables are decorated with a crow-step moulding in the west and with blind pointed arches in the east. Nõo was one of the first Estonian churches to have received an organ (1718). The present organ dates from 1890. The church has two bells, one cast in Gachina near St Petersburg in 1807 and the other, smaller one in Tartu in 1817. The altarpiece is by Tõnis Grenzstein and the woodcarvings are by Jaan Koort (1910).