Tallinn is the capital, primate and most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of about 454,000 and administratively lies in the Harju maakond (county). Tallinn is the main governmental, financial, industrial, and cultural centre of Estonia. It is located 187 km (116 mi) northwest of the country's second largest city, Tartu; however, only 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, Finland, also 320 km (200 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, 300 km (190 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, and 380 km (240 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century, Tallinn was known in most of the world by variants of its other historical name Reval.
Tallinn Airport or Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport is the largest airport in Estonia, which serves as the secondary hub for AirBaltic and the cargo airline Airest. It was also the home base of the now defunct national airline Estonian Air. Tallinn Airport is open to both domestic and international flights. It is located 2.7 nautical miles southeast of the centre of Tallinn on the eastern shore of Lake Ülemiste. It was formerly known as Ülemiste Airport.
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. From ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, and the Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as letzis were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions – representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced.
Toompea is a limestone hill in the central part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The hill is an oblong tableland, which measures about 400 by 250 metres, has an area of 7 hectares and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas. In folklore the hill is known as the tumulus mound over the grave of Kalev, erected in his memory by his grieving wife.
Saue is a town in north-western Estonia. It's the administrative centre of Saue Parish in Harju County.
Harju County, is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in Northern Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the southeast, Rapla County to the south, and Lääne County to the southwest. The capital and largest city of Estonia, Tallinn, is situated in Harju County. Harju County is the largest county in Estonia in terms of population, as almost half (45%) of the Estonia's population lives in Harju County.
Tallinn TV Tower is a free-standing structure with an observation deck, built to provide better telecommunication services for the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics regatta event. It is located near the suburb Pirita, six km north-east of the Tallinn city center. With its 313 m (1030.2 ft), the TV tower is the tallest nonbuilding structure in Tallinn. The tower was officially opened on 11 July 1980. The viewing platform at a height of 170 metres was open to the public until 26 November 2007, when it was closed for renovation. The tower began receiving visitors again on 5 April 2012. The building is administered by the public company Levira and is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers.
The Narva, formerly also Narwa or Narova, flows 77 kilometres (48 mi) north into the Baltic Sea and is the largest Estonian river by discharge. A similar length of land far to the south, together with it and a much longer intermediate lake, Lake Peipus, all together nowadays form the international border between Estonia and Russia.
Paide is a town in Estonia and the capital of Järva County, one of the 15 counties of Estonia.
Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the best known symbols and tourist sites on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531. The lighthouse is quite unique with its shape and exceptional among lighthouses because it has gone through all the stages from a medieval landmark up to a modern electrified lighthouse.
The fortifications of Xi'an, also known as Xi'an City Wall, in Xi'an, represent one of the oldest, largest and best preserved Chinese city walls. It was built under the rule of the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang as a military defense system. It exhibits the "complete features of the rampart architecture of feudal society". It has been refurbished many times since it was built in the 14th century, thrice at intervals of about 200 years in the later half of the 1500s and 1700s, and in recent years in 1983. The wall encloses an area of about 14 square kilometres (5.4 sq mi).
The Kalamaja cemetery, in Tallinn in Estonia was once the city's oldest existing cemetery, located in the suburb of Kalamaja in the north of the city. It contained thousands of graves of ethnic Estonian and Swedish residents of Tallinn and stood for at least 400 years, from the 15th or 16th century to 1964 when it was completely flattened and destroyed by the Soviet occupation authorities governing the country at that time. The former cemetery is now a public park: "Kalamaja kalmistupark".
St. Nicholas Church is a medieval church building in Tallinn (Reval), Estonia. It was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron of the fishermen and sailors. Originally built in the 13th century, it was partially destroyed in the Soviet bombing of Tallinn in World War II. The building itself has since been restored; however, as a church without its own congregation, it has not been used for regular religious activities since World War II. At present it houses the Niguliste Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, focusing mainly on ecclesiastical art from the Middle Ages onward. It is also used as a concert hall.
This article covers the architecture of Estonia.
The Estonian Maritime Museum is located in the Fat Margaret tower in the old town of Tallinn. The museum presents the history of ships and navigation in Estonia and related to Estonia. Other parts of the Maritime Museum are the mine museum and the Seaplane Harbour museum where ships are presented. The museum claims to be one of the largest museums in Estonia and the most popular.
The Tallinn Town Hall is a building in the Old Town (Vanalinn) of Tallinn (Reval), Estonia, next to the Town Hall Square. The building is located in the south side of the medieval market square and is 36.8 metres (121 ft) long. The west wall is 14.5 metres (48 ft) in length, and the east is 15.2 metres (50 ft). It is a two-storey building with a spacious basement. It is the oldest town hall in the whole Baltic Sea region and Scandinavia.
Maarjamäe is a subdistrict in the district of Pirita, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It is bordered by Pirita and Kose to the north, Lasnamäe to the south, Kadriorg to the southwest and the Bay of Tallinn to the west. As of 2022, it has a population of 2,412.
Muuga Harbour is the largest cargo port in Estonia, located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast of the capital Tallinn, in Maardu. The harbour is administrated by Port of Tallinn, the biggest port authority in Estonia. Muuga Harbour is one of the few ice-free ports in northernmost Europe and among the deepest —up to 18 metres (59 ft) — and most modern ports in the Baltic Sea region. The cargo volume handled accounts for around 80% of the total cargo volume of Port of Tallinn and approximately 90% of the transit cargo volume passing through Estonia. Nearly 3/4 of cargo loaded in Muuga Harbour includes crude oil and oil products, but the harbour also serves dry bulk and other types of cargo.
Suur Tõll is an Estonian steam-powered icebreaker preserved in the Estonian Maritime Museum in Tallinn. She was originally built for the Russian Empire in 1914 by AG Vulcan in Stettin, Germany, as Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich. In 1917, she was taken over by the Bolsheviks and renamed Volynets. However, in 1918 she was captured by Finland and served as Wäinämöinen until 1922, when she was handed over to Estonia according to the Treaty of Tartu and renamed Suur Tõll. When Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, the icebreaker rejoined the Soviet fleet and was again named Volynets. She remained in service until 1985.
This is the overview article of the history of Tallinn, Estonia. For the timeline, see Timeline of Tallinn
