Walls of Tallinn
Tallinna linnamüür
Interesting facts
- Queen Margaret Sambiria, who ordered the first wall in 1265, was the mother of the Danish king Eric V and styled herself Lady of Estonia.
- That first wall was a patchwork of 60 to 70 sections of differing heights, apparently built by different masters, with a wooden walkway on top.
- In 1345 the Danish king Valdemar IV allowed the town to flood its moat with water from Lake Ülemiste.
- A royal charter of 1310 obliged the nuns of St Michael's convent to build the town wall along their own land at their own expense.
- Water mills worked between the inner and outer gates at Harju, Karja and Viru until the 19th century.
- The lower floors of the Bremen Tower, next to Vene Street, served as a prison.
- In 1569 a combined Danish and Lübeck fleet bombarded Tallinn for 13 days, putting the defences to a severe test.
- Muscovite forces and Duke Magnus besieged the town for seven months in 1570–1571, then for six weeks in 1577, and failed both times.
- By the 1920s the wall was hemmed in by buildings, and most of its towers were in private hands, some of them used as homes.
- A list of 1414 already counted 27 defensive towers along the circuit.
Why it is worth it
Tallinn has kept one of the most complete medieval town walls in northern Europe, and it still shapes the silhouette of the Old Town: a ring of grey limestone curtain walls punctuated by round towers with red conical roofs. Building went on for three centuries. The first wall, named after Queen Margaret Sambiria, who ordered it, dates from 1265, and a major expansion of the defences began in 1310. In its final form the circuit around the lower town ran about 2.35 km, with some 35 towers in the main wall and eight gates, plus outworks; around 1.85 km of wall and more than 25 towers survive today.
The wall grew with the weapons it had to face. Early sections were about 6.5 metres high and more than 2 metres thick; in the fifteenth century they were raised to 11–16 metres, and the towers became heavier as artillery arrived. The most imposing is Kiek in de Kök, a powerful cannon tower built in 1475–1483. Near the harbour stands Fat Margaret, a squat artillery tower of 1510–1531, 22 metres high, which now houses a maritime museum. The Maiden Tower, a guard tower of 1360, and the tall Nunnatorn, which incorporates older convent walls, give the circuit its fairy-tale profile.
Walking the wall is the best way to see it. A section of the wall walk near the Hellemann Tower is open to visitors, and several towers can be entered, with views over the steep tiled roofs and church spires of the Old Town. The most famous gateway is the Viru Gate, whose two slim outer towers now frame the entrance to Viru Street from the modern city.
Getting there
The walls surround Tallinn's Old Town, less than 1 km from the modern city centre. Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL) is about 6 km away. The Old Town is compact and best explored on foot; the Viru Gate is the most convenient entry point from the modern centre.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Walls of Tallinn are the medieval defensive walls constructed around the city of Tallinn in Estonia.
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