The Chapel of St. Mary is first mentioned in 1404, but it was demolished during the renovation of the nave. A new Chapel of St. Mary was built between 1513 and 1523. Stylistically, it is a magnificent example of late Gothic architecture and one of the richest and most finely crafted architectural onuments in Estonia. The chapel was never completed: sculptures are missing and the friezes remain unfinished. The arrival of the Reformation meant that an elaborate chapel was no longer needed.
Cenotaph of Hans Pawels
On the eastern exterior wall of the Chapel of St. Mary is the cenotaph of Hans Pawels, the church warden and main patron of the chapel’s construction. It consists of two parts. Below is a niche-shaped wall tomb containing a skeleton with a toad on its chest and a snake crawling around its skull. Above it are two rows of reliefs depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ:
- Entry into Jerusalem
- The Last Supper
- Prayer on the Mount of Olives
- Arrest
- Before Caiaphas
- Scourging
- Before Pilate
- Carrying the Cross
of the Chapel of St. Mary
The cenotaph (empty tomb) of Hans Pawels is designed as a late Gothic altar. In the upper part, within an ornamental frame, there is an empty central niche, flanked on the left and right by open altar wings, each containing four sculpted reliefs depicting scenes from the Passion, each set within a profiled frame. The predella of the altar is a niche with an ornamental frame, with a five-line inscription on its back wall. On the same panel is a coat of arms with the Pawels family emblem.
At the bottom of the niche lies a skeleton with a toad on its chest and a snake crawling around its head—symbolizing the dual nature of the human heart and corrupt thinking. However, for God the situation is not hopeless: above is the Passion of Christ, showing that He has already borne everything and leads the human being through death.
On the back wall of the niche is a five-line inscription:
“Dat ick vorgaf is mi gebl (even) Wes ick behelt heft my bo(geven)
(H)irvme sal sik nemant to h(och er) heven Also roek vorgheyt des myn
seen leuen hans pawls degechtnisze 1513”
Translation:
“What I have given is left to me;
what I have possessed is lost to me.
Therefore no one should exalt themselves too highly,
for human life passes like smoke.
In memory of Hans Pawels, 1513.”
The cenotaph is one of the most outstanding works of late Gothic art in Estonia in terms of execution and composition. It is a work of art for which both the date of completion and the artist have been historically documented. (L. Krigoltoi, 2001)