Old Thomas
The guardian weathervane since 1530.
Ivar Leidus — CC BY-SA 3.0 ee · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Robert Lang — CC BY-SA 4.0
Northern Europe's last surviving Gothic town hall: Tallinn's took its present form in 1404, limestone with pointed arcades and a slender tower, and on its spire turns Old Thomas — a moustached weathervane soldier of 1530 who became the city's emblem and guardian. The great hall on the first floor, with its vaults and wall paintings, held the city's trials and feasts, the cellars hold a small museum, and the tower climbs by a narrow spiral stair (115 steps) to a view over the square, the roofs and the port. And the square before it has been Tallinn's heart for eight hundred years: ringed by coloured merchant houses and cafés, with the Raeapteek pharmacy trading since 1422 — among Europe's oldest working pharmacies, its window displaying medieval remedies (powdered unicorn horn, frogs' hearts). In December the Christmas tree stands here: Tallinn claims the world's first public Christmas tree, in 1441.
The guardian weathervane since 1530.
Medieval remedies in the window.
The city's trials and feasts under the vaults.
Raekoja plats 1, Tallinn
The Great Guild HallAn early fifteenth-century building on Pikk street that was the seat of Tallinn'2 minutes walk4.5
St Nicholas' Church (Niguliste)A Gothic church that became a museum because it could no longer be prayed in: Ni2 minutes walk4.5
St Catherine's PassageA narrow cobbled lane in Tallinn's old town, spanned by stone buttress arches li2 minutes walk4.7
The Danish King's GardenA small garden on the slope below Toompea hill, hemmed in by the city wall and i4 minutes walk4.8
Sauna TowerA tower in the northern sector of the Tallinn town wall, connected to the Tower 4 minutes walk4.6Tallinn and Riga contest the title: Tallinn cites a 1441 record of a tree raised in the square, danced around by merchants and then burned, while Riga claims 1510 — the dispute itself part of the fun of visiting both.