Tallinn

Tallinn: Europe’s Best-Preserved Medieval City and What Else the City Has to Offer

Tallinn’s medieval old town is genuinely extraordinary and also genuinely small. The Toompea (upper town) and the Lower Town together cover about 1.5 square kilometres and can be walked thoroughly in an afternoon. Most visitors who come for a weekend see the old town comprehensively and then run out of obvious plan. Understanding what Tallinn’s neighbourhoods look like outside the UNESCO zone changes the visit considerably.

The Old Town

The walled old town dates primarily from the 13th to 15th centuries, when Tallinn was an important member of the Hanseatic League and traded extensively with German, Scandinavian, and Russian merchants. The German influence is everywhere: the street names were German until the early 20th century, the merchant houses along the main commercial streets (Pikk tänav, Viru tänav) follow the Hanseatic pattern of narrow facades with deep warehouses behind, and the Churches (St. Olaf’s, St. Nicholas, Holy Spirit) are all Gothic structures comparable to what you’d find in Lübeck or Rostock.

Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats) is the centre of the lower town. The Town Hall itself dates from the 15th century and is the only surviving Gothic town hall in the eastern Baltic. The pharmacy on the square (Raeapteek) has been operating since 1422, making it one of the oldest continuously operating pharmacies in Europe.

The Toompea, the upper limestone plateau, has the castle (now housing the Estonian Parliament, exterior viewing only) and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (1900, built by Russia during the occupation period, deliberately positioned on the hilltop to make an imperial statement). The views from the Toompea terraces over the lower town and the Baltic are the practical reason most people climb the hill.

The old town is genuinely well-preserved but can feel theme-park-ish in peak season (June to August) when it’s crowded and several restaurants operate specifically for tourists at tourist prices. Olde Hansa, a medieval-themed restaurant on the main square, is good for the experience of eating in a 15th-century building with period-appropriate food if you’re in the mood for that; if you’re not, it’s easy to find better food elsewhere.

The New Areas: Telliskivi and Kalamaja

Telliskivi Creative City, a redeveloped industrial complex about 15 minutes’ walk from the old town, is where Tallinn’s actual restaurant and cultural life concentrates. The buildings are former Soviet-era factories now housing independent cafes, galleries, studios, and bars. The Saturday flea market is worth timing around. The food court at the Balti jaam (Baltic station) market adjacent to Telliskivi has the best range of casual eating in the city: Georgian khachapuri, Estonian black bread sandwiches, good coffee.

Kalamaja, the wooden-house neighbourhood north of Telliskivi, was a working-class fishing district in the 19th century. It is now the neighbourhood Tallinn’s under-40 creative community chooses to live in. The coloured wooden houses are genuinely charming rather than heritage-managed; people actually live in them. The Patarei sea fortress on the waterfront (a 19th-century coastal battery used as a Soviet prison until 2002 and now partially open to visitors) is one of the more affecting places in Tallinn.

Kadriorg

Peter the Great commissioned the Kadriorg Palace and gardens in 1718 for his wife Catherine, following his victory in the Great Northern War. The palace is a Baroque building designed by Italian architect Nicola Michetti, now housing the Kadriorg Art Museum (foreign art, primarily from the 17th-19th centuries). The gardens are formal and well-maintained. The modern building at the end of the main axis is the KUMU (Estonian art museum), which opened in 2006 and contains the national collection of Estonian art. The KUMU’s Soviet-era section, covering art produced under the Soviet occupation, is the most interesting section in the building; the propaganda commissions, the realist paintings, and the carefully managed exceptions make the ideological context visible.

Food and Drink

Estonian food is Baltic: rye bread, smoked fish, pork, dairy. Leib Resto ja Aed (the “Bread Restaurant”) on Uus tänav in the old town does the most considered version of this: eight-grain sourdough, cured fish, pickled vegetables, local wines from Estonia and nearby. Book ahead for dinner. For lunch, the Viru turg market hall near the old town entrance has stalls with straightforward local food at reasonable prices.

Tallinn has a developed craft beer scene; Põhjala Brewery (based in the city) and a number of smaller brewers sell through the tap rooms and bars in Telliskivi and Kalamaja.

The ferry to Helsinki takes 2 to 3 hours (depending on operator) and runs multiple times daily. A day trip to Helsinki from Tallinn is entirely feasible.