Explore Tallinn

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.