The construction of Harju square (from the album "Old Tallinn")

In March 1944, during the II World War, Tallinn was hit in an attack by soviet bombers. Besides the wooden suburban houses, the stone centre of the city – the Old Town – was also substantially damaged. The biggest loss was the St. Nicholas’ Church with its abundant artwork collection. Only the empty walls of the church survived. Many more valuable pieces of art like Bernt Notke’s painting “Dance of Death” and Hermen Rode’s gorgeous shrine had luckily been removed to safety. The losses were still great, but fortunately, it halted the soviets’ later plans to demolish the remaining ruins with the purpose of cleaning up the city, as they did in other Estonian towns like Narva and Pärnu. The church was restored from the ruins as a museum and Bernt Notke’s “Dance of Death” and Hermen Rode’s shrine have been returned there, but the burnt console in the collection of the City Museum and the pulpit leg depicting the Christ-bearer Saint Christopher, for example, are the only parts left of the beautifully carved Tobias Heinze pulpit from the 17th century. As the rest of the pulpit is lost, so are the benches and many of the epitaphs from the wall – the fire took everything.