Discover Tallinn

About Tallinn

Tallinn is one of the great surprises of European travel: a UNESCO-listed walled medieval Old Town as complete as Rothenburg, set on a Baltic harbour that has been a Hanseatic League trading post since the 13th century, all wired into a country that pioneered nationwide e-voting, x-road digital governance, and Skype. The Toompea Hill upper town holds the Russian-Orthodox onion-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the parliament building inside the medieval Toompea Castle, and three viewing platforms (Patkuli, Kohtuotsa, and Piiskopi) where every Tallinn postcard is shot. Below, the lower town is a tight grid of Gothic merchant houses around the Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats), with the Town Hall itself — the oldest in the Baltics, completed in 1404 — and Olde Hansa, the city's best-known medieval-themed restaurant. Modern Tallinn has serious teeth too: the Telliskivi Creative City and the regenerated Kalamaja district are excellent for design shops, vintage stores, street food at Balti Jaama Turg, and craft breweries. The Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour museum, inside a hangar with original concrete shell domes, is one of Europe's best maritime museums.