Famous Landmarks in Tallinn
A hilltop castle, a Gothic town hall and a soaring church spire share one walled old town.
Landmarks here split across two levels of a walled old town. On Toompea hill stands a castle first raised after a thirteenth-century conquest, its halls now given over to a national parliament. Below, around the medieval market square, a two-storey Gothic town hall reached its present form by 1404, its spire carrying a weather vane fixed there since 1530; nearby, a Gothic church tower climbs to almost 124 metres, tallest of its kind in the country, tracing its congregation back to a community of merchants. Closer to the hill, a domed cathedral in the Russian Revival style, raised at the very end of the nineteenth century under a since-departed imperial power, adds a fifth, later layer of building to the skyline.
Toompea Castle
1219
A castle occupying the flat summit of a hill above the surrounding old town, its historic stone walls enclosing a modern legislative chamber rather than standing empty as a ruin.
A medieval castle on Toompea hill in central Tallinn, its origins tied to a Danish conquest of the area in 1219, part of the wider Northern Crusades that brought Christianity to one of the last pagan regions left in Europe. It changed hands repeatedly under the succession of foreign powers that ruled the city over the following centuries. It no longer serves any defensive purpose: its halls today house the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, making it one of the few medieval castles anywhere still occupied by a sitting legislature.
Photo: Ivar Leidus (CC BY-SA 3.0 ee)
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
1894–1900 · Mikhail Preobrazhensky
A cathedral in the Russian Revival style crowned with a cluster of cupolas larger than that of any other church in the city, its ornamented, domed profile standing apart from the plainer Gothic stonework nearby.
An Eastern Orthodox cathedral built in 1894–1900 in central Tallinn, while Estonia lay within the Russian Empire, to a design by Mikhail Preobrazhensky in the Russian Revival style. It remains the city's largest cupola church and serves as the primary cathedral of the semi-autonomous Estonian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. The future Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, who lived from 1929 to 2008, began his priestly ministry within its walls before later rising to lead the Russian Orthodox Church.
- The future Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow began his priestly ministry there.
- It is the largest cupola church in the city.
Photo: Georg Mittenecker, perspektivisch entzerrt von User:Ikiwaner (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Tallinn Town Hall
1404
A long, two-storey Gothic building with an arcaded façade facing directly onto an open market square, a slender 64-metre spire rising from one end and topped by a weather vane figure in place since 1530.
A two-storey Gothic building on the south side of Tallinn's Old Town market square, 36.8 metres long with an arcaded ground floor and a spacious basement below. The square reached its current size in the 1370s, the hall gained a board roof in 1374, and the building had taken its present form by 1404. Its 64-metre spire carries the weather vane known as Old Thomas, in place since 1530 and long counted among the city's best-known symbols. It is the oldest town hall of its kind still standing anywhere in the Baltic Sea region and Scandinavia.
- The weather vane on its spire, known as Old Thomas, has stood there since 1530.
- It is the oldest surviving town hall building in the whole Baltic Sea region and Scandinavia.
- One of the city's shortest streets runs directly behind the building.
Photo: Ivar Leidus (CC BY-SA 3.0 ee)
St. Olaf's Church
1267
A tall Gothic church with a slender, needle-like spire rising to nearly 124 metres above the surrounding rooftops, its silhouette visible across the old town, with a public viewing platform partway up the tower at 60 metres.
A church in central Tallinn built in the Gothic style, originally Roman Catholic, then Lutheran after the Reformation, and today home to a Baptist congregation. At 123.7 metres it is the tallest church building in Estonia, with an observation platform set into its tower at a height of 60 metres. It takes its name from Olav II Haraldsson, a Norwegian king canonised as Saint Olaf and venerated as a patron saint of seafarers. A church is assumed to have stood on the same site before the 12th century, built by a community of merchants, predating the structure that stands today.
- It has served three different congregations in turn: Catholic, then Lutheran, then Baptist.
- Its namesake, a canonised Norwegian king, is venerated as a patron saint of seafarers.
Photo: Olga Itenberg (CC BY 2.0)
History
Human settlement here reaches back nearly five thousand years, but the built city's recorded history starts with the Northern Crusades: a Danish raid in 1219 was followed by the granting of Lübeck city rights in 1248, converting one of the last pagan populations left in Europe. A stronghold on Toompea hill followed the conquest and was rebuilt over the centuries into the castle occupied today. In the market square below, a stone town hall was under construction by the 1370s and had taken its lasting form by 1404, the oldest of its kind still standing in the region. A church tied to a merchant community, later named for a canonised Norwegian king, is thought to have had a predecessor on the site before the 12th century. Centuries after, Russian rule added the domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built in 1894–1900 by Mikhail Preobrazhensky.