Welcome to Tallinn, the capital and largest city of Estonia. It lies on a bay of the Gulf of Finland, just 80 kilometres south of Helsinki. For centuries much of the world knew it as Reval, and it received Lübeck city rights in 1248, though people have lived here for almost 5,000 years. In its heyday Tallinn was the northernmost member of the Hanseatic League, and its Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe. Today the city is also known as the birthplace of Skype and Bolt. Let's step through the old walls.
Tallinn Old Town
Photo: Ben Bender · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsYou are standing in Tallinn Old Town, the oldest part of the city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. What makes it so special is that its 13th century street plan survives almost completely intact, enclosed by the city walls, and most of its buildings date from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It has not always been peaceful here: during a Soviet bombing raid in March 1944, more than a thousand incendiary bombs fell on Tallinn, destroying about a tenth of the Old Town's buildings.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsCrowned by five onion domes, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral stands on Toompea hill. It was built between 1894 and 1900, when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, to a design by Mikhail Preobrazhensky in the Russian Revival style, and it is the city's largest cupola church. Listen out for its bells: there are eleven, all cast in Saint Petersburg, and the largest weighs about 16 tonnes, more than the other ten put together. Step inside to see three gilded, carved wooden iconostases.
Toompea Castle
Photo: Abrget47j · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsOn top of Toompea hill rises Toompea Castle, home of the Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu. An ancient Estonian stronghold stood here from at least the 9th century. In 1219 Danish crusaders led by King Valdemar the Second captured it, and a popular Danish legend says the Danish flag fell from the sky during that battle. The castle became known as the Castle of the Danes, in old Estonian taani linna, and from that phrase the name Tallinn itself may well come.
Kadriorg Palace
Photo: A.Savin · FAL · Wikimedia CommonsWelcome to Kadriorg Palace, an elegant Petrine Baroque residence whose name means Catherine's valley. After his troops took the city in 1710, Tsar Peter the Great decided to build a palace here for his wife Catherine. Work began in 1718 to designs by Nicola Michetti and the main building was finished by 1725. Peter and Catherine visited while it was still incomplete, but after his death Catherine lost interest. Today its rooms display foreign art from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
St. Olaf's Church
Photo: Olga Itenberg · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsTilt your head right back for St. Olaf's Church, the tallest church building in Estonia at 123.7 metres. Its tower has an observation platform 60 metres up, with sweeping views over the rooftops. The church is named after the Norwegian king Olav the Second, a patron saint of seafarers, and is first mentioned in 1267. Over the centuries it has changed faith more than once: it began as a Roman Catholic church, became Lutheran after the Reformation, and is now a Baptist church.
Tallinn Town Hall
Photo: Ivar Leidus · CC BY-SA 3.0 ee · Wikimedia CommonsOn the south side of the old market square stands Tallinn Town Hall, the oldest town hall in the whole Baltic Sea region and Scandinavia. A building with a great meeting room is recorded here as early as 1322. Look to the top of the 64-metre spire and you will spot Old Thomas, the weather vane that has watched over the city since 1530 and become one of its symbols. Surprisingly, in 1364 the building was called a playhouse, a hint that theatre was performed here as well as council business.
Kumu
Our last stop is Kumu, one of the largest art museums in Northern Europe. The name is a playful shortening of the Estonian words for art museum. Inside you can follow Estonian art from the 18th century onwards, including works from the years of occupation between 1940 and 1991, where official Socialist realism hangs alongside the nonconformist art of the time. In 2008 Kumu won the European Museum of the Year Award.
Lomakuume
