I’ve just been to Tallinn for a quick getaway between Christmas and New Year’s holidays. While the city confirmed my expectations for a cosy, wintery and Christmassy medieval-town vibes for my last holiday of the year, the impressions I took back home included a lot more than that. Although what compels us to choose a travel destination is some form of expectation, there is also a lingering craving for novelty and the unexpected. Here goes my list of discoveries and thoughts.
A nation at a crossroads of cultures
The city tells its own story (and of that its country) via monuments, plaques and museums. On them one can find plenty of references to other languages and cultures happening in parallel with Estonian: Baltic, German, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish and others. Occasionally, these cultures and languages are associated with a ruling nation, sometimes with allies, other times as just a segment of a society (merchants, nobles, craftsmen) that lived alongside each other. For an unwary visitor like myself it’s where I notice that Estonia throughout history is more than a set of people speaking Estonian and waving the Estonian flag.
An example: when approaching one of the main city’s attractions, the Danish King’shappening in parallel to Estonian garden, I’m greeted by a shield sporting the flag of Denmark. The Danish flag is considered an important symbol in Tallinn’s history. According to a legend (there’s a nice renaissance representation of it) the flag of Denmark descended from the skies as the Danish crusaders battle the local pagan Estonians and take over Estonia (called Revala at the time), as if a symbol of God’s approval. From then on, Estonia would be ruled by the Danes for quite some time. Later, it would change hands to the Teutonic, Swedish and Russian rulers, with a brief moment of independence, until WWII, when it was incorporated into the Soviet Union. The modern sovereign state of Estonia was created in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.
Medieval
Inside the walls and towers surrounding the Danish King’s Garden, a museum and several exhibitions give further details of the purpose and usage of the place. You see things like items one would find there in the past, or how these towers, for instance, would at one time house a feared cold prison and artists’ apartments at another. The museums are exceptionally well crafted, keeping the visitor engaged from start to end. The old Tallinn town itself is an open-air museum and it’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site as one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. I have already visted a fair deal of Europe’s medieval cities and can attest that few felt as genuine as Tallinn.
The Brotherhood of the Blackheads
The Brotherhood of the Blackheads was quite an interesting organisation originated in Tallinn during the Middle Ages. It began as an association of merchants with the goal of organising the defence of the city in case of an attack. One of the museums had a dedicated exhibition on the order. The order survived up until the 20th century despite ups and downs, and kept branches in other cities (such as Tartu) as well. The name of the order comes from their African patron saint, Saint Maurice. The museum tells how once someone is admitted on the order, it’s a lifetime membership. They are required to participate in training sessions, do defence drills and must be ready in case of an invasion. It was also cool to see how they also had celebrations, dress code, how they organised the first fire brigades in Tallinn back in the Middle Ages, and had special funeral ceremonies for the members. It just amazes me how an association like this survived for such a long time.
Christmas market
We were lucky enough to get the last days of Tallinn’s Christmas market, right in Tallinn’s old market square. It’s exactly what someone would wish from a Christmas market: a big Christmas tree in the center, several wooden stalls with regional food, drinks and local crafts. Plenty of mulled wine and other beverages. Of these, the most unique one to me was something called Vana Tallinn, a spiced rum-based liquor made in Tallinn (the rum itself is made in Jamaica, though). I also got positively surprised by the mini pancakes topped with fruit jam. All reasonably priced and not overcrowded, what else could one ask for? The drinks were served on reusable cups for which we had to leave a 2 euro deposit. I guess the main benefit is to contain the trash, which seemed to be working, as the premises of the market were quite clean.
Pro-Ukraine stance
There’s no shortage of pro-Ukraine manifestations visible in Tallinn. Ukrainian flags hanging from hotels, public buildings, embassies. Stickers with the Ukrainian flags are commonplace: on light poles, public benches, pubs. They even minted a commemorative 2 euro coin with the Slava Ukraini motto (I learned about it when I was handled one in the Christmas market upon returning a cup for the deposit). Meanwhile, in front of the Russian embassy a long row of metal fences hang numerous anti-war and anti-Putin placards.
None of this surprises me much. Estonians do not seem to remember their time as part of the Soviet Union very fondly. While chatting with an old lady running a book shop, she referred to their Soviet past as occupation. The maritime museum dedicates a few exhibits to how citizens of Soviet Estonia occasionally undertook risky boat journeys to Finland and Sweden in order to escape the repressive regime.
The current EU’s high representative for Security and Foreign Policy and previous Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has been one of the most outspoken champions for Ukraine in the European leadership and sees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as also a threat to Estonia’s independence. However, unlike Ukraine, Estonia is a NATO member.
Coffee culture
Tallinn for sure might have one of the biggest rates of cafés per capita from all cities I have been so far. I don’t know if that is true, but that was my impression. I’m into coffee, thus that can’t be a bad thing. Not only they all served great brews, they were also stocked with high quality bites to go with: croissants, pastries, sandwiches. Some sweet, some savoury, all of them great. They even have their own more hip and better Starbucks-like chain called Caffeine. (After some online reading I learned that Caffeine is actually Lithuanian).
We’ve even been to an exhibition about the history of Tallinn’s café’s scene. How cafés have been a major social hub before social media. Also, first time I had a 4-espresso shot flat white. Highly recommended.
Sea
Another highlight of the trip was the impressive quality of content and infrastructure of the Maritime museum housed at a Seaplane warehouse, right by the coast. One can get there from the old town on a 20-minute walk. The walk is against strong chilly winds coming from the Baltic sea, but is rewarded with magnificent views of the rocky shore and beautiful architecture, old and new alike.
Tallinn’s Maritime museum gives further insights into Estonia’s geopolitical challenges throughout history, especially the critical importance of naval power for conquering independence in the interwar period. The museum presents a narrative about how Estonia fought at sea against subjugation from the Russian Empire and then pushed to avoid occupation against the Soviets with cooperation with the more friendly countries such Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Great Britain.
In the Seaplane Museum I had the chance to go into a couple of decommissioned ships of great importance to Estonia’s maritime history: The submarine Lembit and the icebreaker Suur Toll. The latter one was especially impressive, as it was my first time visiting the bowels of a large ship: the immensity of the engine, fuel (coal) ovens and all the machinery. The complexity of building and operating such a large machine might have been astounding. How the crew was managing the insane amount of pipes, valves, levers, dials and switches is hard to get one’s mind around. The ship was built in the 1910’s and was active for over 50 years, proving the machine’s success. The other compartments of the boat include separate bedrooms for the captain, head engineer, second and third engineers (with decreasing order of fanciness, size and furniture items) and even a nice dining room equipped with a piano for entertainment. Delving into Suur Toll was an enlightening experience which changed my view of the reality of life on a ship.
Dance of Death
The only visit to a temple in the trip was St. Nicholas church. However, you don’t get the feeling of visiting a religious building, and rightly so, because it is not one. According to Wikipedia’s article, St. Nicholas church is currently deconsecrated. This seems to go in accordance to the figures that, as of 2021, 64% of Tallinn’s residents declared to be non-religious and that Estonia ranks among one of the least religious countries in the world.
St. Nicholas church is now home to Niguliste, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia and it is also sometimes used as a concert hall. The highlight of Niguliste is the Danse Macabre painting, from Bernt Notke dating from the 15th century. The Dance of Death was a common allegory used in medieval times to represent the universality of death. Bernt Notke’s Danse Macabre is the oldest surviving painting of the theme. Its macabre content stretches over a 7.5-meter-wide canvas that certainly leaves an impression. And that’s the only surviving fragment of the 30 meters original.
Niguliste’s gift shop smartly leveraged Danse Macabre’s extreme bad assity and put together a card game based on the artwork. Being myself a game enthusiast, I didn’t resist the impulse and treated myself to a copy. The game is in 1v1 format where the players are God and the Devil, and they battle each other to acquire poor mortals’ souls to each side. The level of creativity and care put by the designers and the museum into this game warms my heart for humanity. They managed to pay a beautiful homage to Notke’s masterpiece, expand the artwork’s essence into a contemporary medium that can be appreciated by anyone and keep the universal tone that goes beyond religion.
Ending remarks
Visiting Tallinn reminded me how much I love diving into new cities. It is simply great when the place itself wants to be discovered and put significant effort into helping tourists find their way around without being touristy. Tallinn not only has plenty of interesting things to experience and see, it also feels genuine and welcoming. I might come back again.