TTStoryTime! #1: Legendary stories of Baltics

Welcome to our first #TTStoryTime! series! 

Legendary stories are never enough for us, and even better when we could experience them. To open the first #TTStoryTime series, following my colleagues’ post on our Timetravelers' Magazine, you will experience three legendary stories of each Baltic country that YOU will pass by during your tour.

So, let's start our storytime with Tallinn and the cursed church, followed by Swedish Gate's tragic love story in Riga and finally - the best one - the Hill of Crosses Legend in Šiauliai!

1) Tallinn - The Legendary Curse of St Olaf's Church

Firstly, I decided to choose the story of this church, because you will most probably spot it as one of the first as soon as you set foot in Tallinn, as it is the second-tallest building in the city (boring statistics: it is 123.7m high, but let’s round it up to 124m for those who are not good with numbers like me).

But did you know that it was built even higher? 

There was a legend, stating that the original plan was to build a 159m high tower. Back then, there was no high technology, and for sure it cost the city a lot of trouble to build it. The city was short in money and they could pay only if the tower was finished. From time to time, construction foremen took the challenge and bet their life on it, but soon one by one fell off the tower to their death. The church was cursed!

One day, a man called Olaf appeared and promised to finish the tower with a thousand pieces of gold. Despite the shortage of money, the city needed to accept the bargain for him to begin the construction.

Day by day passed by, Olaf climbed up by himself and did all the dangerous work. He, upon completing the final touch, tragically fell to his death from the top of the tower. When his body hit the ground, a snake and a toad were crawling out of his mouth. Nowadays, inside the church lies a carving depicting this legend.

Wasn’t it such a coincidence, when the church was hit by lightning many times and burned down to 123.7 m in height? People called this a curse of the devil’s work, perhaps there was ground after all.

2) Riga - The Legend of the Swedish Gate

Located near the center of Riga, the Swedish Gate is a favorable place to go (during the nights if you enjoy the thrill). 

And the story begins!

Once upon a time, there was a plague and the whole city was in quarantine. The gate will open at sunrise and close at dusk, in order to protect the city.

At this time, love between maidens and soldiers was forbidden. However, there was a girl who was deeply in love with a Swedish soldier, who lived in a barrack on the other side of the wall.

One day, they decided to meet secretly at the Swedish Gate, but sadly, the soldier was nowhere to be found. With all sorrow, the girl desperately tried to go through the locked gate to find her lover, with the result of being captured by the Rigans. They punished her severely for disobeying the law by cruelly immuring her inside the wall of Swedish gates, as a warning for all people in the city.

At the present day, there is a belief that if two lovers walk through the Swedish gates, they can hear her despair whisper: “But I still love him…”. The twist is, you can only hear these words if you love someone unconditionally as she does until this day.

Well, if you are on the science team, you probably would not hear any of these whispers, obviously. But if there is a couple walking along with the gate and the girl would ask the guy “Did you hear the lady’s whisper?”, the guy, of course, would say “Yes, of course, I did hear, my love!”. And that's how the legend lives on.

3) Šiauliai - The Legend of the Hill of Crosses

Last but not least, our favorite place, is the ​​Hill of Crosses, which could give you shivers just by looking at its spooky and magical appearances. As the local artist - Vilius Puronas commented “The hill has many secrets”, many legends were told about this place. The one I’ll be telling you will be one of the most renowned of the hill’s creation.

This is a tale of a desperate father who had a bedridden daughter. As she approached her death, one night her father had a dream that a white-clothed woman told him to build a wooden cross and place it on the nearby hill. By doing this, his daughter will recover again. 

The father in despair had no option and followed what was told. He hurriedly assembled a wooden cross, rushed to the hill, and placed it.

To his surprise, as he returned home, his daughter had recovered miraculously and welcomed him with open arms.

As the story spread, many people came to this hill to nail the crosses, in hope that their loved ones would soon also be cured, or in general, for their prayers to be answered. Since then, the Hill of Crosses has become a symbol of hope, peace, love, and sacrifice.

Yet, not all crosses had optimistic prayers. Few of them are instead reminders of quiet rebellion.

For history lovers, this place will for sure catch your breath and leave you in awe, as you wander along with hundreds of thousands of crosses in various shapes and sizes.

Ending

I hope the stories will carve in your mind some interesting stories which will travel with you throughout the journey. Baltic Countries are so rich in history as they have gone through thick and thin. And it’s totally worth paying a visit and listening to even more legendary stories from your guide. 

Let us know which story interests you most!

If you wish to read more about the Baltic countries, don’t miss the last Timetravelers magazine issue:

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