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Estonia's history

(by centuries)

13th - 16th

17th - 19th

20th

Tourist attractions

Defense towers & gates

Toompea castle & Nevski Cathedral

The Town Hall Square

The Dome church

The St Nicholas church

The Great Guild & The Brotherhood of the Blackheads & The Holy Spirit church

The Dominican monastery & The church of St Peter and Paul & St Catherine’s passage

Long Leg & Short Leg & City Defenses

St Olav's church

Nobles' houses

City defenses

In the 13^th century wooden defense walls were built. By the end of the 13^th century Tallinn already had stone defenses. The walls were renovated in the 14^th and 15^th century, and in the 16^th century bastions were added and the walls were renovated again. The walls were about 3 meters thick and 15 meters high and about 1,5 miles long (now about 1 mile) having 40 towers all in all. Nowadays there are only 27 of them left. Long parts of the town wall as well as many towers have been destroyed during the numerous wars. The Sweden authorities in the 17^th century had a plan to make Tallinn into a real stronghold, but the designs were rejected, because they were way too expensive. The towers alone would have needed 6 tons of gold. 

Long leg & Short Leg The Upper and Lower Towns were connected by the Long Leg street during the Middle Ages. The Short Leg street could only be used by pedestrians, because it is and was only a stairway-street. The relations between the Upper and Lower towns were pretty tense, because both the rich merchants of the Lower Town and the noblemen and knights of the Upper Town wanted to obtain more power. Due to the conflict between the two Towns the merchants in the Lower Town were afraid of raids from the Upper town and they had the street connecting the two Towns fortified with a wall and gatehouses. The new wall has become known as “the wall of Mistrust”. During night all traffic between the Upper and Lower town was stopped and the gates were closed.
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