Kalamaja (

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

for ''Fish House''; ) is a subdistrict of the district of Põhja-Tallinn (Northern Tallinn) in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, the capital of

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. It is located just northwest of the historical town centre, on the coast of the

Tallinn Bay Tallinn Bay () is a bay in Estonia on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Estonian capital city Tallinn is located on the southern coast of the bay. Tallinn Bay itself is divided into several parts: Tallinn Roadstead (), Kopli Bay, K ...

. Kalamaja has a population of 9,820 (). Kalamaja is one of the best preserved wooden architecture areas in Tallinn and Estonia. The quiet neighbourhood has long been known for its colourful hodgepodge of old fashioned, working class houses. Throughout most of Tallinn's history Kalamaja served as the city's main fishing harbour. Starting from the 14th century the area was traditionally dominated by fishermen, fishmongers and boat wrights. A new era began in 1870, when Tallinn was connected to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

by railroad. The Tallinn railway station ( Balti jaam), was built between Kalamaja and the city centre. Suddenly enormous factories started to sprout up in this part of town, and they brought with them an influx of thousands of new workers. The wooden houses, which have become Kalamaja's architectural legacy, were built to accommodate these workers. Most of the Kalamaja's main sightseeings are located on the coast of Kalamaja. In 2011 a former railway embankment was converted into a walking trail called "Culture Kilometre" (''Kultuurikilomeeter''). The walk-way starts next to the Tallinn harbour passes the Creative Hub (''Kultuurikatel''), continues past the historic Patarei Prison and Sea Fortress, the region's biggest sea centre

Seaplane Harbour The Seaplane Harbour ( Estonian: Lennusadam) is a maritime museum in Tallinn, Estonia, which opened in spring 2012.Pääkkönen, Sirpa: Samppanja virtasi sukellusveneessä, ''Helsingin Sanomat'' 14 May 2012, p. C 1, The museum is part of the Est ...

(''Lennusadam'') and ends at the end of Kalamaja park on Tööstuse street. In 2015, the former ''Kultuurikilomeeter'' was converted into a street, which quickly became one of the defining streets of the neighbourhood.

Kalamaja cemetery

Kalamaja was the location of the oldest

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in Tallinn, known as Kalamaja cemetery (, ) which was founded in the 15th or 16th century. The cemetery was flattened in 1964, during the second

occupation of the Baltic states The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its Dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Naz ...

, by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

authorities who used the area of Kalamaja as a base for the

Soviet Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

.Rein Taagepera, ''Estonia: Return to Independence'', Westview Press 1993, , page 189

Gallery

File:Patarei Prison, Tallinn.jpg, Former Patarei Prison File:Tallinn asv2022-04 img77 Seaplane Harbour.jpg, Seaplane hangars from 1916–1917, part of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, now housing the Estonian Maritime Museum. File:Tallinn, baptistide Kalju-koguduse palvela.jpg, The baptist prayer-house on Kalju street. File:Tallinn, Kalamaja kalmistu värav-kellatorn, 1780 (2).jpg, A gate-belltower on the Kalamaja cemetery. File:Ilmarise kvartal.jpg, Newer apartment buildings in the Ilmarise quarter near the

Old town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

. File:Tallinn-kalamaja-linda-2009-07-16.JPG, File:Near_Tallinn_train_station.jpg, File:Adam Johann von Krusensterni väljak (vaade rannast) -20190327.jpg,

Adam Johann von Krusenstern Adam Johann von Krusenstern (; 10 October 177012 August 1846) was a Russian admiral and explorer of Swedish and Baltic German descent, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth in 1803–1806. Life Krusenstern was born i ...

Square

External links

Kalamaja Information Page
* ttp://www.estonianfreepress.com/2010/06/a-different-saturday-discovering-tallinn-fish-market Discovering Tallinn Fish Marketbr>Kalamaja blog

Patarei Prison - Culture Park

References

{{Authority control Subdistricts of Tallinn