Stenbock House () is a prominent neo-classical building located on Toompea hill,

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 ...

. It is the official seat of the

Government of Estonia The Government of the Republic of Estonia (''Estonian language, Estonian: Vabariigi Valitsus'') is the cabinet (government), cabinet of Estonia. Under the Constitution of Estonia, Constitution, it exercises executive power pursuant to the Cons ...

History

The history of the Stenbock house goes back to the 1780s, when the local administration of what was then the

Governorate of Estonia The Governorate of Estonia, also known as the Esthonia (Estland) Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. It was located in the northern Estonia with some islands in the West Estoni ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

launched a scheme to erect new buildings for administrative purposes. Originally, the building was intended as a courthouse. Count Jakob Pontus

Stenbock The Stenbock family is an old Swedish noble family, of which one younger branch established itself in Finland and another younger branch in Estonia, both of them in the mid 18th century, of which the first was entered into the rolls of the Finni ...

, an influential local aristocrat and owner of a large estate in

Hiiumaa Hiiumaa ( , ) is the second largest island in Estonia and is part of the West Estonian archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. It has an area of 989 km2 and is 22 km from the Estonian mainland. Its largest town is Kärdla. It is located within ...

, won the tender to erect a new building on Toompea hill in the middle of Tallinn (Reval). The architect for the new house was Johann Caspar Mohr, a provincial architect who was responsible for the maintenance of public buildings in Estonia and a popular designer of local manor houses. The construction of the building started in 1787. Almost immediately, however, the Russian state ran low on funds as a result of expenditures in connection with the ongoing Russo-Turkish War. As a result, the province became indebted to Stenbock, and the unfinished building passed into his possession. He subsequently used it as his Tallinn residence, and the building still bears its name in his remembrance. In 1828, after Stenbock's death, the building passed between different owners until 1899, when it finally became the property of the Governorate administration, and finally began to be used as a courthouse. During both the first period of independence of Estonia (1918–1940) and during the Soviet occupation (1944–1991) it continued to be used as a courthouse. The maintenance of the building was neglected in the 1970s and 1980s, when the ceilings of two courtrooms and the archive of the court collapsed. By the time of the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991, the entire building was at risk of collapsing. A complete renovation was carried out in 1996–2000. The newly renovated building became the official seat of the Estonian national government at its re-opening in 2000.

Architecture

The architectural style of the building is a rather simple form of neo-classicism. The front façade is adorned by six

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and two semi-pilasters made of dolomite from

Saaremaa Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

and a dentiled

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

. It faces a semi-circular courtyard surrounded by less ornate outbuildings. The street front of the building is therefore characterised by the rather unassuming outbuildings. On the building wall facing the street, there is a memorial plaque with the names of Estonian members of parliament and government who were killed by the Stalinist Soviet occupation regime. The best-known view of the building (''illustration'') is of its back, which by its location at the edge of Toompea hill enjoys an unobstructed view of the sea. This face is dominated by a large balcony raised on

Doric columns The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

. All in all, the exterior of the building still more or less reflects the original edifice. The interior was severely damaged during the Soviet occupation, and it has now been reconstructed in large part.

References

External links

* {{coord, 59, 26, 17.8, N, 24, 44, 25.3, E, region:EE, display=title Buildings and structures in Tallinn Government buildings in Estonia Kesklinn, Tallinn Government buildings completed in 1792 18th-century establishments in Estonia Tallinn Old Town