Towers in succession
Several cone-roofed towers along a single street.
Guillaume Speurt — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Adolf Purve — Public domain · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0
A tower in the north-eastern sector of the Tallinn town wall on Laboratooriumi street, one of those seen from outside and not regularly opened for interior visits. Laboratooriumi street itself is the better reason to come this way. The street runs along the inside of the wall, and several towers stand in succession along it with their red conical roofs, with old town houses on the other side. This is the stretch that shows the wall as a connected system rather than as scattered towers. The street's name comes from a gunpowder laboratory that stood on it — another reminder that this belt was the zone of the town's dangerous functions: gunpowder, bathhouses and any trade that needed fire. A plain practical point: there is nothing regularly visitable inside this tower. The visit means passing it on a walk along Laboratooriumi street, minutes within an Old Town circuit and entirely free.
Several cone-roofed towers along a single street.
Gunpowder, bathhouses and fire-using trades — all at the wall.
No ticket and no queue — a stretch on your Old Town route.
Laboratooriumi street, Old Town, Tallinn
Fat MargaretAn artillery tower with walls five metres thick at the sea gate: Fat Margaret wa1 minute walk4.7
Skåne BastionAn earthwork bastion from the Swedish period north of the Old Town, known today 2 minutes walk4.1
Epping TowerA defensive tower of the Tallinn town wall in the north-east of the Old Town, wo3 minutes walk4.4
Tower behind NunsA tower in the northern sector of the Tallinn town wall, one of three connected 5 minutes walk4.6
The Great Guild HallAn early fifteenth-century building on Pikk street that was the seat of Tallinn'6 minutes walk4.5Walk Laboratooriumi street from the north-east, then turn towards Gümnaasiumi street where the three enterable towers are. That gives you the wall from outside and inside in a single circuit of about an hour.
Some open for occasions, heritage days or temporary events, but with no regular schedule you can plan around. The regularly open ones are few and well known: the Gümnaasiumi section, Epping Tower, Kiek in de Kök and Fat Margaret.