notes:
The Padise monastery is an architectural and historical object of great importance for Estonia and the whole of Northern Europe, the monastery was built in the 14th century by the monks of the Cistercian Order. With interruptions the monastery was built only more than 200 years. As a result of wars, the monastery was in ruins, restoration work was started in the 1930s.
To date, from the medieval atmosphere of the Padise monastery, a church bell of the 14th century (the oldest in Estonia), as well as a rare group of Kolgata of the same century that is exhibited in the Niguliste church, has been preserved in the Risti Church.
It is interesting to know: thanks to good acoustics and a special aura, the church hall of the medieval Padise monastery is considered a good place for concerts.
Castle-monastery Padise is located in the Harju district of Estonia on the 43rd kilometer of the Tallinn-Haapsalu highway. It should be noted that the monasteries in the architecture of Estonia occupy an important place. Most of them belonged to the monastic order of the Cistercians: men's monasteries in Kärkna and Padise (1317), women's monasteries in Tallinn (the monastery of St. Michael, or Mihkli, 13th-16th centuries), in Lihula and Tartu. The architecture of the Cistercian buildings had a noticeable influence on many other religious buildings.
In the early 13 century. Padise and its surroundings were given possession of the Cistercian monastery of Dunamunde (now Daugavgriva in the city of Riga). After the liquidation in 1305 of the Daugavgriva monastery near Riga, the monks of this monastery moved to Padise where they belonged (approximately from 1280) a chapel built in early Gothic forms. In 1317, the Danish King Erik Menned granted monks permission to build the stone buildings of the monastery and this chapel was included in its south-western part. Type of lock so called. Castellas (as it is customary to call the convent houses), rendered in the XIV century. A significant impact on the architecture of fortified monasteries and bishops' castles. This influence can be traced, for example, in the planning of the monastery in Padise, possibly under the influence of a castle in Haapsalu.
Because of the accepted vow not to eat meat, Cistercian monks paid much attention to the cultivation of fish in ponds and horticulture. During the activity of the monastery Padise was the center of extensive landed estates, encompassing, along with the surrounding villages, lands in the parishes of Jõelähtme, Jüri and Harju-Jaani, and in the 14th and 15th centuries. Even Uusimaa in Finland.
During the uprising in Yuryev night (1343) the monastery was burnt, and 28 monks and laymen were killed. Order records chronicling this event emphasized the bloodthirstiness of Estonians and their hatred of the church. From the chronicle of Hermann Wartberg: "When the same master in 1343 went with an army on ships against the same heretics, on the eve of St. George (April 22), the newly-reintegrated Reval district was postponed, renouncing faith. They killed their own masters and all Germans, along with small children, throwing children on stones and plunging them into fire or water. They did what is shameful and talked about, namely, they cut women with swords and pierced the children who were in their wombs with spears. Houses and other structures they set on fire, the churches burned to the ground: just like the monastery of Pades; 28 monks they killed by various torments, the abbot only escaped with a few. And those who were spared by the men, the more brutally killed the raging women. "
During the Livonian War, two small semicircular cannon towers were built on the north-eastern and south-western sides of the monastery. After the Livonian War, most of the monastery is in ruins. It is known that during this war the rector of the Padisez monastery was beheaded. It is believed that his ghost and began to live in Padise from that time on - the monk, faithful to his vow, remained forever in the monastery. According to the legends, a ghost appears before people at any time of the day or night. Once he scribbled his name "Thomas" on one of the stone walls with Gothic letters. In the thirties of the 20th century, a group of medium occultists settled at night in the center of the church hall, and tried to communicate with the ghost by translating the ghosts into letters and words, finding out that his name was Thomas von Ramm.
Now the ruins are partially restored, the masonry is preserved from caving, the premises of the monastery and the courtyard are used for performances and concerts. The rest of the time it is open for tourists.
