History
The church of St. Lawrence in Kuusalu was probably built at the end of the 13th century, perhaps on the initiative of the Cistercian monks of Gotland. Its location off the beaten track, away from busy routes, would suggest it. According to the tradition, the builder was brother Lawrence, later burned alive by the heathens. The church suffered during the Livonian War in the second half of the sixteenth century and during the Great Northern War in the early eighteenth century. The Baroque spire, like the upper part of the tower, was built during the renovation of the building in 1760. In 1889, a fundamental neo-Gothic rebuilding was carried out, during which an eastern apse was added and the church obtained a cross plan.
Architecture
The original medieval church consisted of a nave, rectangular in plan, a shorter and narrower chancel ended with a straight wall in the east and a four-sided tower on the west side. In the 15th century, the interior was vaulted, and the walls of the building were raised.
