Explore Tallinn

Tallinn Old Town is the medieval centre of Tallinn, made up of the upper town on Toompea Hill and the lower town of merchants and craftsmen, ringed by its medieval town wall. Its 13th-century street plan and buildings dating mostly from the 13th to 16th centuries have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997; the area covers 113 hectares.

Town Hall Square is the medieval market square at the heart of Tallinn's Old Town, lined with gabled merchant houses and closed on its south side by the Gothic Town Hall of 1402–1404. The Town Hall Pharmacy on its north-east corner has worked in the same house since the early 15th century, and a Christmas tree and market fill the square in December.

Tallinn Town Hall is a Gothic limestone town hall on the south side of Town Hall Square, first mentioned in 1322 and completed in its present form in 1402–1404. Visitors see the vaulted cellar, the halls of the main floor and the attic, and 115 steps lead up the 64-metre tower to a gallery below the weather vane Old Thomas, first raised in 1530.

The Church of the Holy Spirit is a medieval Lutheran church just north of Town Hall Square, first mentioned in 1319 and built as the chapel of an almshouse. It is the only 14th-century church in Tallinn that keeps its original form; a carved clock of 1684 by Christian Ackermann hangs on the facade, and inside stands Bernt Notke's winged altarpiece of 1483.

The Great Guild Hall on Pikk Street is a late Gothic guildhall completed in 1410 for the Great Guild, the association of Tallinn's wealthiest merchants, which met here until 1920. Its plain facade is divided by tall pointed blind niches; today the building is a branch of the Estonian History Museum, with exhibitions on Estonian history and Hanseatic trade.

The Niguliste Museum fills St. Nicholas' Church, a medieval merchants' church in Tallinn's Old Town, burnt in the bombing of March 1944 and reopened in 1984 as a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia. It shows ecclesiastical art, including a fragment of Bernt Notke's Dance of Death and Hermen Rode's high altar; a glass lift climbs the tower to a viewing deck.

The House of the Blackheads on Pikk Street was the seat of the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a society of unmarried merchants and shipowners, from 1406 until 1940. Its Renaissance façade of 1597 by Arent Passer has a carved stone portal and painted doors from the 1640s. Today the Tallinn Philharmonic holds concerts in its White Hall and St Olaf's Hall.

The Walls of Tallinn enclose the medieval Old Town. Building began after Queen Margaret Sambiria of Denmark ordered a wall in 1265, and the defences were enlarged for some 300 years. About 1.85 km of wall and 26 towers survive; a walkway of about 200 m on top of the wall links the Hellemann and Munkadetagune towers.

Kiek in de Kök is a 38-metre artillery tower on the slope of Toompea, built in 1475 and named in Low German for the view its gunners had into the kitchens below. Now the Fortifications Museum of the Tallinn City Museum, it covers the tower, the Maiden, Stable and Gate towers on the town wall and 17th-century bastion passages with a carved stone collection.

St. Mary's Cathedral, the Toomkirik, is the Lutheran cathedral on Toompea hill and the oldest church in Tallinn, founded in the 13th century after the Danish conquest. Rebuilt after the fire of 1684, it holds a pulpit and altarpiece by Christian Ackermann, carved tombs of Swedish and Russian commanders and many noble coats of arms; the Baroque tower dates from 1778–1779.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is an Orthodox cathedral on Toompea hill, built in 1894–1900 to a design by Mikhail Preobrazhensky in the Russian Revival style, when Estonia belonged to the Russian Empire. Five onion domes with gilded crosses crown the church; inside stand three gilded wooden iconostases, and the largest of its eleven bells weighs about 16 tonnes.

Freedom Square is a paved plaza on the southern edge of Tallinn's Old Town, laid out on the site of a Swedish bastion in front of the demolished Harju Gate. St John's Church (1862–67) closes its east side and the War of Independence Victory Column (2009) stands on the west side. State ceremonies and concerts take place here.

The KGB Prison Cells are a museum in the basement of Pagari 1, a 1912 building in the Old Town that housed the Estonian Provisional Government in 1918 and served as headquarters of the Soviet NKVD and later the KGB for almost half a century. Run by Vabamu, the former cells hold an exhibition on the people imprisoned, interrogated and killed here.

Toompea Castle stands on Toompea hill above Tallinn's Old Town; its medieval walls and corner towers go back to the Livonian Order, and the pink Baroque wing on Castle Square was added under Russian rule in the 18th century. The castle houses the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, and the national flag flies daily from the Tall Hermann tower.

St. Olaf's Church is a Gothic church in the northern part of Tallinn's Old Town, first recorded in 1267 and named after the Norwegian king Olav II. Its spire rises to 123.7 metres; a steep spiral stair of 258 steps leads to an observation platform at 60 metres with views over the Old Town and Tallinn Bay. The church is used today by a Baptist congregation.

Fat Margaret is a round artillery tower at the northern end of Pikk Street, built in 1511–1530 beside the Great Coastal Gate to guard the harbour approach; it is 25 metres across, with walls up to 5 metres thick. Since 1981 it has housed the Estonian Maritime Museum, with exhibitions on Estonian seafaring and a rooftop terrace.

The Seaplane Harbour is a branch of the Estonian Maritime Museum, housed in seaplane hangars with three reinforced-concrete domes built in 1916–1917 for Peter the Great's Naval Fortress and reopened in 2012 after restoration. Inside are the 1936 submarine Lembit and a replica Short 184 seaplane; the steam icebreaker Suur Tõll is moored at the quay.

Kadriorg Park covers about 70 hectares east of Tallinn's centre and was laid out from 1718 on the orders of Peter the Great around Kadriorg Palace. Baroque flower gardens, the Swan Pond with its pavilion, an informal seaside section from 1897 and a Japanese garden completed in 2011 show park design from four centuries; Kumu stands at its edge.

Kadriorg Palace is a Baroque palace built in 1718–1725 for Peter the Great and his wife Catherine to designs by Nicola Michetti. It houses the Kadriorg Art Museum, the branch of the Art Museum of Estonia for European and Russian art from the 16th to the 20th century. The great hall keeps its stucco decoration, and a formal flower garden lies behind the palace.

The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds in Kadriorg host the Estonian Song Festival, held every five years. The arched stage, built in 1959 to designs by Henno Sepmann with Alar Kotli and Endel Paalmann, holds about 15,000 singers, and the Night Song Festivals of 1988 that began the Singing Revolution took place here. A 42-metre flame tower stands beside the stage.