Tallinn, Estonia                                                                     
Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, has an impressive and convoluted history that dates back to at least the 10th century. At that time, Estonia along with modern-day Latvia made up Livonia, named for its pagan inhabitants…the Livs. The land was conquered and Christianized by the German Teutonic Knights. The main coastal town, later to be known as Tallinn, became a major trade center of the Hanseatic League. A few years later, in the summer of 1219, the town was seized by the Danes and gained its modern name of Tallinn, which literally means "Danish castle" in the Estonian language. In 1345, the Danish King sold the city to the German Knights for a sum of 19,000 silver marks, and the place was run by German merchants for two centuries until it came under Poland’s control. A century later, Estonia was ceded to Sweden (1660). Interestingly, throughout this succession of rule by different countries, local control at Tallinn was maintained by German merchants. This ended when Peter the Great of Russia conquered Estonia during the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, and made it a province of the Russian Empire. He wanted the region in order to gain access to the Baltic Sea. It remained under Russian control until the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, and the following year both Estonia and Latvia became the new independent Baltic republics. Two decades later, the USSR occupied and annexed Estonia, but German military forces drove the Soviets out the following year and Germany occupied Estonia for most of the remainder of WWII. Soviet rule was restored in 1944, after the defeat of Germany, and continued until 1991, at which time Estonia regained its independence. Phew!
           
I first visited Estonia in 1984, and the difference between then and what we experienced today is enormous. Our guides were able to describe the events leading up to their country’s recent independence first hand and were also eager discuss the improvements to their quality of life since the dark times of Soviet control.
           
Everyone must have been impressed with the many beautiful 19th century wooden homes still to be seen in the surrounding suburbs as we drove to the Old Town center, where we spent most of our time today enjoying guided walks. Much of the original city wall, which was built by the Danes in 1248, still exists. The people of Tallinn claim theirs is the longest city wall left in the world, but we will have to measure the one we saw several days ago at Visby, Gotland, in order to determine which is longer. The wall was constructed of limestone rock which protected it from the “Great Fire” of 1433 that destroyed almost the entire city. Tallinn was rebuilt immediately, not of wood as before but of locally obtained limestone—like the wall. During our walk, we first stopped in front of the impressive pink Parliament building in Palace Square and then visited the relatively new Alexander Nevsky Eastern Orthodox Cathedral (completed in 1900) and briefly observed a religious ceremony taking place inside. A short walk led us to St. Mary’s Church…the oldest church in Tallinn (built in 1227), which was reserved for the nobility. From a high overlook in the Upper Town we could see much of the walled-in section of the Old Town. After a coffee break (which also included cake and hot wine) at a historic café called Bogapott, we continued on to the large, photogenic Town Hall Square. Among the very old buildings to be seen here was a pharmacy that was established in 1422! It remained in business and was owned by the Burchardt family for 11 generations until 1908... a fact like that is utterly mind boggling to an American. It is now an antique store, which somehow seems very appropriate.