Ruhnu St. Magdalene Church

Ruhnu St. Magdalene Church, aka New Ruhnu Church is located on Ruhnu Island in Ruhnu village; constructed in 1910–12. The church building is a heritage conservation site (1998).

The church is being used by the Ruhnu St. Magdalene congregation (minister Harri-Johannes Rein, since 1996). Next to the New Ruhnu Church there is a 17^th-century wooden church. The churches are surrounded by a village cemetery with archaic wooden crosses.

The project was confirmed in 1908 (architect Otto Hoffman), when August Zetterquist was the local minister. The cornerstone was consecrated in 1910, the cross was installed on the spire top 20. IX 1911 (according to the old calendar), the new church was consecrated 2. VII 1912. The last Ruhnu Swedes’ service was held 4. VIII 1944 and the church was re-consecrated in 3. III 1988 after a period of abandonment. The building was renovated with the help of former Ruhnu Swedes, both the new bell (1990) and the organ (1991) are gifts from them.

The building is made up of the nave and there is a high front hall at the western end, an open choir room (without an apse) in the east, and a vestry on the northern side of the choir. The side walls in the extent of the main floor and the tall east and west gables are made from rubble stone and have decorative joints; the inside of the church, the second floor above the middle part and the spire at its western end are made from wood. A frieze made up of diagonal crosses and round arched flat niches below the row of windows in the nave adds color to the interior. The building is full of light and has great acoustics.

The altar (altar table from 1998) and the altar painting (‘Come to Me’, Severin Nilson, based on Carl Bloch’s painting ‘Christ the Consoler’), the pulpit, inner doors and pews, as well as the eastern rose-window and the stained glass arched windows date back to the construction period of the church. There is a late medieval baptizing stone (end of XIV century – beginning of XV century, bottom 1922) in the choir room, and a life-size plaster figure of Jesus Christ (1924) right of the altar.