The rite for the founding of St. George's Chapel, co-served by the clergy, was led by Metropolitan Eugene of Tallinn and All Estonia. The ceremony was attended by Mayor Mihail Kõlvart, who noted that it is important for Estonia to preserve the memory of the Northwestern Army.
“Many Tallinners, including famous people, supported the initiative to restore St. George's Chapel, and one of the inspirers was Evgeny Tomberg. According to Orthodox tradition, donations from parishioners and philanthropists were involved in the restoration of the chapel. We thank everyone who took the restoration of the memorial to heart,” the head of the city said.
During the laying of the chapel, a time capsule was laid in its foundation, where they put a mortgage letter, drawings of the chapel, the latest issue of the Postimees newspaper, the January issue of the Põhja-Tallinn Newspaper, souvenirs and coins.
The Northwestern Army, which fought against the Bolsheviks, was forced to retreat to the territory of Estonia at the end of 1919, where it was disarmed and liquidated. In Estonia, a typhus epidemic began in the ranks of the SZA. Several typhoid hospitals were located in the Tallinn region of Kopli (Koppel). The northwesterners who died in them were buried in the area adjacent to the Koppel Lutheran cemetery. According to researchers, about 700 people were buried in mass graves.
St. George's Chapel was erected in 1936 at the cemetery of the North-Western Army in the Tallinn district of Kopli according to the project of architect Alexander Vladovsky. The chapel is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Kopli typhoid hospitals of the North-Westerners.
In the late 1940s, the chapel was desecrated and destroyed, and the icon of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, which was in it, was shot, the cemetery of the North-Western Army was destroyed, and an electrical substation was built on its territory.
Preparations for the reconstruction of the chapel began about two years ago. In the autumn of 2021, the project for the reconstruction of the memorial chapel, developed by the architectural bureau AB Ansambel on the order of the St. George Society, was transferred to the Tallinn City Hall. The city allocated the necessary amount for the construction and held a tender to select a contractor.
The walls of the chapel are currently under construction and should be completed by the end of summer 2022. St. George's Chapel is being restored, including on voluntary donations.