The Kohtuotsa platform
The most famous view over the old town's roofs.
Ivar Leidus — CC BY-SA 3.0 ee · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0
The hill that ruled Estonia for eight centuries: Toompea is a limestone plateau rising twenty-four metres above the old town, crowned by the castle the Danes built in 1219 and the Livonian knights, Swedes and Russians enlarged — its pink Baroque front today the seat of Estonia's parliament, the Riigikogu, with the tallest tower, Tall Hermann, raising the Estonian flag each morning to the anthem. The hill is a city within the city: it was the walled quarter of the Baltic German nobility while the merchants lived below — and climbing to it through two gates and two narrow stone streets still traces that old class boundary. And it holds the best of Tallinn: the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms open the whole old town with its red roofs and towers, the port and the modern city behind — Estonia's most famous view, free and always open, with the wall at Kohtuotsa carrying the "The Times We Had" line everyone photographs.
The most famous view over the old town's roofs.
The parliament tower that carries the flag.
A walled upper city above the merchants'.
Lossi plats 1a, Tallinn
Landskrone TowerA tower of the Toompea hill fortifications in Tallinn, part of a defensive syste1 minute walk4.5
Alexander Nevsky CathedralFive black-and-gold onion domes directly facing parliament: the Russian Orthodox2 minutes walk4.7
St Mary's Cathedral (Dome Church)Mainland Estonia's oldest church: the Dome Church on Toompea hill was founded in2 minutes walk4.6
The Danish King's GardenA small garden on the slope below Toompea hill, hemmed in by the city wall and i3 minutes walk4.8
Kiek in de Kök and the Bastion TunnelsAn artillery tower called "Peep into the Kitchen": Kiek in de Kök was built in 13 minutes walk4.7Toompea above belonged to the Baltic German nobility and to power, the lower town to the Hanseatic merchants and their guilds — each with its own wall, gates and laws, united administratively only in the nineteenth century.