Pirita Convent (Pirita klooster) was a monastery, for both monks and nuns dedicated to St. Bridget. In 1407 two brothers from St. Bridget Order Convent in Vadstena, Sweden, had arrived to Tallinn to promote with advice and other assistance the expansion of order to Estonia. In 1417 finally the first limestone quarry permit was obtained from the town with the help of the Grandmaster of the Livonian Order and the building of the Pirita convent started. The completed church was consecrated on August 15, 1436 by Tallinn’s Bishop Heinrch II.
The Pirita Convent operated over 150 years and was the largest nunnery in Old Livonia. It was brutally destroyed by Russian army short invasion in late January 1575. In addition, the nearby village was also destroyed. The local inhabitants never restored most of the buildings. As late as in last century – in the 1930s – potato field covered the former nuns quarters and the potatoes were stored in the former hypocaust of the abbess’s residence.
