Tallinn

Sister cities

• Vilnius

History

The first archaeological traces of a small hunter-fisherman community's presence Around 1050 AD, a fortress was built in what is now central Tallinn, on the hill of Toompea. As an important port on a major trade route between Novgorod and western Europe, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Roman Catholic Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. The King Valdemar II of Denmark conquered Tallinn and northern Estonia in 1219. Tallinn, then known more widely as Reval, was granted Lübeck town rights by the king of Denmark in 1248. In 1285, Reval became the northernmost member of the Hanseatic League – a mercantile and military alliance of German-dominated cities in Northern Europe. The king of Denmark sold Reval along with other land possessions in north Estonia to the Teutonic Order in 1346. Reval was arguably the most significant medieval port in the Gulf of Finland. Reval enjoyed a strategic position at the crossroads of trade between the rest of western Europe and Novgorod and Muscovy in the east. The city, with a population of about 8,000, was very well fortified with city walls and 66 defence towers. The city wall has been described as an outstanding example of German Medieval fortification architecture. A weather vane, the figure of an old warrior called Old Thomas, was put on top of the spire of the Tallinn Town Hall in 1530. Old Thomas later became a popular symbol of the city. In the early years of the Protestant Reformation, the city converted to Lutheranism. In 1561, Reval (Tallinn) became a dominion of Sweden. During the 1700–1721 Great Northern War, plague-stricken Tallinn along with Swedish Estonia and…

Geography

Tallinn is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, in north-western Estonia. The largest lake in Tallinn is Lake Ülemiste (), which serves as the main source of the city's drinking water. Lake Harku is the second-largest lake within the borders of Tallinn and its area is . The only significant river in Tallinn nowadays is the Pirita river, in the eponymous Pirita city district. Historically, a smaller river, called Härjapea, flowed from Lake Ülemiste through the town into the sea, but the river was diverted into underground sewerage system in the 1930s and has since completely disappeared from the cityscape. References to it still remain in the street names Jõe (from jõgi, river) and Kivisilla (from kivi sild, stone bridge). The length of the seaside coast is , comprising three larger (Kopli, Paljassaare, and Kakumäe) peninsulas. The city has a number of public beaches, including those at Pirita, Stroomi, Kakumäe, Harku, and Pikakari. The highest point in Tallinn, at above sea level, is situated in Hiiu, Nõmme District, in the southwestern portion of the city. A large limestone cliff runs through the city. It can be seen at Toompea, Lasnamäe, and Astangu. However, the hill at Toompea, despite its prominence, is not geologically connected to the larger limestone cliff formation. The rocks and sediments underneath Tallinn are of different composition and age. Youngest are the Quaternary deposits. The materials of these deposits are till, varved clay, sand, gravel, and pebbles that are of glacial, marine and lacustrine origin. Some of the Quaternary deposits are valuable as they constitute aquifers, or as in the case of gravels and sands, are used as construction materials. The Quaternary deposits are the fill of valleys that are now buried. The buried…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,828
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,291
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,789
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,409
• Great Spotted Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,281
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,187
• Herring Gull

  Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763 · Aves
  2,034
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,873

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2005-05-12
  29 km SSE of Hanko, Finland
• M 2.7 — 2005-05-12
  28 km SSE of Hanko, Finland
• M 2.7 — 2005-05-12
  28 km SE of Hanko, Finland