HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Tallinn Town Hall () is a building in 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 ...
(''Vanalinn'') of Tallinn (Reval),
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 ...
, next to the Town Hall Square. The building is located in the south side of the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
market square and is long. The west wall is in length, and the east is . It is a two-storey building with a spacious basement.Eesti arhitektuuri ajalugu 1965, p 176 It is the oldest town hall in the whole
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
and
Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
. The
weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...
" Old Thomas" () on the top of the town hall's spire, that has been there since 1530, is one of the symbols of Tallinn. The height of the tower is 64 metres. Tallinn Town Hall is located on the Town Hall Square, where the streets Kullassepa street, Dunkri street and lead. One of the shortest streets of Tallinn is , which is located behind the Town Hall. The town hall was built by what was then the market square. The town hall square got its current length in the 1370s. Covered with a board roof in 1374, the town hall was probably a single-decked stone building with a basement. The attic was used as a storeroom. The façade of this long and narrow building is now a rear wall of the arcade, where some of the simple statuary framed windows from this time are still visible.Masso Tiit (1983). 100 ehitist. Tallinn: Valgus A town hall with a huge meeting room was firstly mentioned in a real estate book in 1322 as a
consistorium The ''sacrum consistorium'' or ''sacrum auditorium'' (from , "discuss a topic"; , "sacred assembly") was the highest political council of the Roman Empire from the time of Constantine the Great on. It replaced the '' consilium principis'' that had ...
, which had a giant warehouse () for the time. Some walls in the eastern part of the modern town hall and seven windows in the basement and on the ground floor have remained from that time. In 1364, it was called a playhouse () and in 1372 a town hall (). The town council controlled the town's political, economic and even partially parlour action. The town hall was often a courthouse and a place to introduce goods; sometimes it was even used as a room for theatre, as is evident from the word . Therefore, it was very important to be placed in the heart of the town and to look representative. Although the city administration worked in the town hall until 1970, it still holds the role of a representational building of the city administration and welcomes visitors as a concert venue and a museum where visitors can learn about the centuries-long historical and architectural value of the Tallinn Town Hall. In conjunction with the Tallinn Old Town, the town hall has been on the
UNESCO world Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
list since 1997. In 2004, the Tallinn Town Hall celebrated its 600th birthday. In 2005, the Tallinn Town Hall received a high recognition – second prize in the category of conservation of Architectural Heritage for the revival of the last surviving Gothic Town Hall in
Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...
and the exemplary revealing of all the historical layers of this icon of the great European tradition of municipal power. The prize was presented to Elvira Liiver Holmström, the director of Tallinn Town Hall by
Queen Sofía of Spain Sofía (Sophia Margaret Victoria Frederica; Μαργαρίτα Βικτώρια Φρειδερίκη, romanized: ''Sofía Margaríta Bictória Freideríki''; born 2 November 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who was Queen of Spai ...
at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony which was held on 27 June 2006 at the Palacio Real de El Pardo,
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
.
Europa Nostra Europa Nostra (Latin for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for cultural heritage, Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement ...
medal was presented to Tallinn Town Hall at the ceremony on 15 September 2006 by
Siim Kallas Siim Kallas (; born 2 October 1948) is an Estonian former politician, having served as Prime Minister of Estonia and European Commissioner. From 1972-90 Kallas was a member of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). In 1987, Kallas was ...
, Vice President of the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
, and Thomas Willoch, Europa Nostra board member. In the 1870s, when the Town Hall was going through a renovation, the workers found behind a cabin, 14 woodboxes of old documents. They had not been opened for several centuries. The oldest document was from 1248. The 300 documents span from period 1200-1700 and are written in Latin, two kind of German languages and Swedish. The documents are about Tallinn's, then called Reval, history as well in general the history of the East-Sea Provinces. The documents was sorted by an appointed Commission by Filologs Christian Eduard Pabst, Rutzwurm and Gotthard von Hansen in six categories: the Danish King's Privileges for Reval, letters to a council Selhorst in Reval, and historic documents about the Swedish Town
Visby Visby () is an urban areas in Sweden, urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic League, ...
.


Architecture

The town hall was initially a building where urban citizens held meetings. It was later used as a government building, a court and a place to introduce new goods. The building process of representational town halls started in the 12th century. Usually they were built in the centre of the town, near the market square. The Lübeck Town Hall (13th–14th century), the Venetian
Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace (''Doge'' pronounced ; ; ) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic architecture, Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and th ...
(started in the first half of the 14th century), the Town Hall of Narva, Estonia (built at the end of the 17th century, restored in 1963) and of course the Tallinn Town HallEesti Nõukogude entsoklüpeedia, p. 369, Tallinn 1974 are the most famous. The town hall is built out of grey
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and the roof out of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
roof tiles.Hahn K.-Rutt (2001). Tallinna vanalinn ehk kõnelused kummitusega. Tallinn: Tallinna Kultuuriväärtuste Amet ja Muinsuskaitseinspektsioon. The town hall is much older than it looks and its current appearance shows. The old walls hiding behind later constructions tell a story about the multi-stage construction of the town hall. According to newest studies, the multi-stage expansion of the town hall took place in five different periods from the west to the east. Therefore, the layout of the town hall is crooked and curved and up to half a metre narrow, which makes it look like a trapezium. In the first quarter of the 14th century the existing building was extended and the basement rooms were expanded. A sort of (vestibule and a rear) spatial system of distribution emerged. According to the results of field studies, it can be said that the oldest town hall building covered the current town hall's western part and the south wall of the current
arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...
faced the market square. In 1346, the king of
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
ceded the power in Estonia to the
Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...
. As a Hanseatic city, Tallinn gained the right to control the eastern trade having the so-called right as a stockpile area. The fast growth of trading and prosperity determined the need for new rooms and a presentable appearance for the town hall. Tallinn Town hall, tallinn.ee, visited July 20, 2013 The oldest, eastern part of the building was extended from 1371 to 1374 towards the west. This building with the current length did not differ much from a big citizen's house. The building got its exterior in 1402–04, with the rebuilding led by
stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...
Ghercke, which has been preserved in the key features to the present day.Eesti Entsüklopeedia 9. Tallinna raekoda. Tallinn, 1996. The building was built with two storeys. A salient octahedral tower, which is mostly built into the building and leans on the wall, rises from the building's eastern gable. It was built in 1627–28 by G. Graff. It has a three-piece
baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
spire with open galleries. The tower is 64 metres high. The spire was built in 1627, but obtained its final shape in 1781 and was also reconstructed in this shape in 1952 after its destruction during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
(architect A. Kukkur). The spire is in
Late Renaissance Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. ...
style. Decorative details are a crenelated battlement that acts as a stronghold, the " Old Thomas" () on top of the tower (the copy of the original from 1530 is in the Tallinn City Museum ()), vane with three eggs, that are held by the simple rock lion and gargoyles decorated with the heads of dragons on the western gable. The Old Thomas is wearing the clothing of a 16th-century city guard. He can be named the symbol of Tallinn and there are even poems dedicated to him. The Old Thomas is holding a flag that has ''1996'' written on it. An open arcade gear is on the building's square's long side, which is almost on the whole façade's ground floor scope (archway). Cellar entrances and windows unfold here. The initial portal was placed on the façade's western side. The current main entrance was built later, supposedly in the 18th century. The door next to the former portal is subsequent. Low
annex Annex or annexe may refer to: Places * The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. * The Annex (New Haven), a neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, United States. * Annex, Oregon, a census-designated place in the United ...
es on the western side of the building were established at the end of the 18th century. The main façade's windows were also repeatedly changed; in the 18th century they were quadrangular. The rooms on the western side of the cellar are covered with edgeline vaults that are carried by the strong quadrangular pillars. Part of the cellar's partitions were probably built later. A strong wall separates the western side of the cellar from the noticeably lower building in the east. An open arcade gear is on the square side of the building. The current main entrance with a stairway was built in the 18th century. Low annexes on the western side of the building were built at the end of the same century. During the Middle Ages, a trade hall and a
torture chamber A torture chamber is a room equipped, and sometimes specially constructed, for the infliction of torture.
and
wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control s ...
were located on the first floor. In the Middle Ages, there was a court on the second floor and in addition a
coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...
, a room for keeping accounts, representative hall for citizens, town hall parlour () and town hall kitchen (). The massive
façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
supporting on the open sharp arcade gear is split into groups by narrow quadrangular windows, which are a bit bigger than those of regular houses.Rannu Jelena (1983). Mineviku Tallinn. Tallinn: Perioodika These groups of windows mark the three most important offices and representational spaces of the main floor, starting from the tower: the town hall writer's room (); the single-nave town hall room, which was the hall meetings room for the town hall lords; and a two-nave citizens' hall.Eesti kunsti ajalugu, Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Ajaloo Instituut, pp. 56–57 From the tin squared windows, town hall lords could see several houses under the town hall: weighing house, pharmacy, coin mint and a jail. At the end of the façade is a parapet reminding of the upper part of a fortress wall with decorative loop-holes. The shape of the tower following directly the example of the Church of the Holy Ghost and a rear
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...
on the façade's cornice line refer to the indirect contacts with the sub-
Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
building art.Eesti kunsti ajalugu, Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Ajaloo Instituut, p. 57 The main façade is decorated by a defensive parapet and dragon head-shaped
gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...
s. It is pervaded by an
arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...
, which consists of nine arcs and is the length of almost the whole building. In addition, the façade is supported by eight pillars. It was comfortable for merchants to shelter under the arcade in case of rain. One of the pillars of the arcade-gear of the town hall was used as a
pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. ...
. Criminals were chained to it to display them to the townspeople, so that they could dishonor and mock them. It had a neck rail and manacles. The arcade ends with the town hall's main entrance in the right side. The main door differs from other smaller doors and hatches with beautiful statuary jambs and three stairs that lead to the door. Because of them it is visible that that is the main entrance. The fiber of the first floor's western side is similar to the cellar under it – its edgeline vault is carried by four low tetrahedral pillars. In the Middle Ages there was supposedly a so-called trade hall here where new goods were introduced and bargains were made. The room on the eastern side from the trade hall, whose vaults lean on identical
tetrahedral In geometry, a tetrahedron (: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular Face (geometry), faces, six straight Edge (geometry), edges, and four vertex (geometry), vertices. The tet ...
pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s, was a torture chamber in the Middle Ages. The room was connected by the staircases built in the northern wall, with the parlour of the Town Hall on the second floor where a court was located. From the two eastern rooms, the one in the south was a coffer, from which there was access to the second floor in the accounting room () by the staircases located in the city wall. As a
treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
, the room located in the north is also covered with a
barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
. This room's city wall held an oven () before, to heat the parlour with warm air. The most interesting rooms of the main storey are a festive citizen's hall with six vaults and the town hall parlour in the east. The so-called citizens' hall on the second floor in the west, which is 16.2 metres long and 12 metres wide, is a 7.5 metre-high room with two vaults. The room is supported by two octahedral pillars typical to the 16th-century architecture. The room is covered by a low octahedral groin vault, which is allocated by a three-piece belt arc (). In the southeast corner of the town hall is a shaft, which pervades all of the floors, used to be a lavatory (''profatt'')


Citizens' Hall

The big hall in the town hall is called the Citizens' Hall. The Citizens' Hall can hold 100 people and also has a piano that can be used for musical performances. As an unheated representational hall, important guests, vagabond musicians, actors were welcomed here and rich feasts were held. The citizens' hall's look is shaped by two-coloured herringbone patterned octahedral pillars, on which impost is architectural motive of
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
s, that originates from the
Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
architecture and often appears later in Tallinn's architecture. The arched ceiling supports on them. Arched ceilings were rarely seen elsewhere than in churches, monasteries and fortresses. In dwelling houses were usually built wooden ceilings. Nine windows make the room very light, the slender Cistercian-influenced
pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s on which the arched ceiling supports, add more wideness to the room. The two-vaulted room is separated with seven
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
s into six bays of vault. In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, the floor was laid with special-sized
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
slabs; nowadays they are uniform.Kangropool Rasmus (1982). Tallinna raekoda. Tallinn Consoles and pillars are covered with a three-coloured herringbone pattern. They were restored on the example of the westward remained pillar fragment. At completion, the Citizens' Hall was supposedly not as spacious as it is now. Visually the room was straightened by the paintings of grapevines, that probably covered the walls and the ceiling. There are two small medieval lavatories (''profatt'') in the eastern corner of the southern wall, one for men and the other one for women. The portal that goes through the eastern wall, separates the room with the town hall parlour (). Above the portal is a niche whose initial content is unknown. Since 1561 an admonition plaque in Latin for
aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...
has stood in the niche. On the walls of the Citizens' Hall are tapestries which were ordered from
Enghien Enghien (; ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1January 2006, Enghien had a total population of 11,980. The total area is , which gives a population density of 295 inhabitants per km2. ...
,
the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, and which depict scenes from
King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...
's life.


Parlour

The profile of the arc, consisting of two strong sharp-clear edge toruses, is repeated variably also in the two-vaulted parlour of the town hall that is behind the citizens' hall. Low-relief keystones in the
vaulted ceiling In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...
in the parlour are one of the first examples of the low embossing style that is representative of the local late Gothic period. The parlour () is the most important room of the town hall. The aldermen held meetings and carried the votes there. One of the conveniences of the parlour was that it was heated. In the Middle Ages, not all the rooms had a fireplace or some other heating that could provide warmth in the winter, but the aldermen could not serve their duties in cold rooms. The
cocklestove A masonry heater (also called a masonry stove) is a device for warming an interior space through radiant heating, by capturing the heat from periodic burning of fuel (usually wood), and then radiating the heat at a fairly constant temperature fo ...
, standing in the corner, appeared several centuries later. Two money closets were
immured Immurement (; ), also called immuration or live entombment, is a form of imprisonment, usually until death, in which someone is placed within an enclosed space without exits. This includes instances where people have been enclosed in extremely ti ...
in the walls of the parlour. The closets'
oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
doors (oak is a very durable tree) have tinned iron hinges. These doors could have been locked because documents, money and other valuables were kept there. The town council had a
town clerk A clerk (pronounced "clark" /klɑːk/ in British and Australian English) is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in ma ...
position, whose task was to mark important things in documents and who, besides having beautiful handwriting, also had a good education. The accounting room, called can be called the
Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...
. An account of all the town's income and expenses was kept there. The treasury could be accessed only through the . Treasured
pewter Pewter () is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. In the past, it was an alloy of tin and lead, but most modern pewter, in order to prevent lead poi ...
, silverware, and other large-dimension treasures that did not fit in the closets of the parlour were stored there.


Other rooms

The basement and the ground floors rooms (wine cellar and trade hall) are covered by simple circular
groin In human anatomy, the groin, also known as the inguinal region or iliac region, is the junctional area between the torso and the thigh. The groin is at the front of the body on either side of the pubic tubercle, where the lower part of the abdom ...
vaults, which support on the tetrahedral pillars. The building was restored from 1971 to 1975 (T. Böckler, L. Pärtelpoeg, U. Umberg).


Architectural self-awareness

The architectural model of the Tallinn Town Hall is not directly taken from somewhere else. It gained its shape on the basis of local long-term processing experience, architectural tradition and the masters' job skills. Some external influences obtained a unique interpretation in Tallinn, shaping the forms of architecture in their own ways and making it unparalleled. The masters of Tallinn had to know the public buildings of Italy, which the arcade gear shows. Tallinn Town Hall architecture is not based on the German town halls in any way. In the façade, premises, details and conjointly in the whole schedule of the Town Hall, aspects of the merchants' representative house, the strictly-formed fortress, and also the halls and churches' sublimity are all intertwined with each other and reflected there. Surprisingly in the compact corpus of the building, which architectural character's final determinants are constructive monumental forms, that were chosen with strict simplicity, have numerously found their places as another types of rooms with different functions besides the big halls. As the oldest and the most unusual European town hall and Tallinn's first big building of secular architecture, it impersonates the concentrated wealth and self-awareness of a
Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
town that has grown strong.


Construction history

Studies of the construction have proved that the town hall was located at the same place in the 13th century. The 600-year-old building was built upon the old town hall's brickwork. A stone building was there in 1250. A building with a meeting room (
consistorium The ''sacrum consistorium'' or ''sacrum auditorium'' (from , "discuss a topic"; , "sacred assembly") was the highest political council of the Roman Empire from the time of Constantine the Great on. It replaced the '' consilium principis'' that had ...
) and a basement () is mentioned in 1322. As the town grew richer and more powerful, it was rebuilt. At the end of the 14th century, the building was as tall as it is now, but it was narrow and without the tower. Only the arcade-gear, which differed from the current one, referred to the fact that it was not an ordinary dwelling house. By the 14th century, Tallinn (old name: Reval) developed into one of the most important intermediate ports of the Hanseatic trade road between Europe and Russia. The 15th century was the heyday of the Hanseatic city Tallinn, when the city was largely rebuilt thanks to the profits from trade. The central article that made its way from Europe through Tallinn to Russia, was salt. Salt was followed by fabrics and herring. Metals, wine and spices were also important. Although some of the things mentioned stayed at the local market, most of it went on to
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. Crops were the most important from the goods taken from Tallinn to the west. Rye, wood,
flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...
and
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
were from
Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...
. Most building monuments that have remained to this day, come from the 15th century: Middle Age
merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...
houses, churches, guild halls and including the town hall. The major work began at the beginning of the 15th century. The town council celebrated Easter of 1402 in the old building. The construction started right after the holidays. The leading master of the building was probably stonemason Ghercke. It is possible that the leading masters, including Ghercke, came from downtown
Toompea Toompea (from , "Cathedral Hill") is a hill in the central part of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The hill has an area of and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas. Toompea is part of the medieval Tallinn Old Town, a ...
, where extensive works had ended in the last quarter of the 14th century in the fortress, the circular wall of Great Toompea and in the cathedral (). 600 logs, 581
balk In baseball, a balk is a set of illegal motions or actions that a pitcher may make. Most of these violations involve pitchers pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so. In games played under the Baseball_rules#Rules, Official Ba ...
s, 46 pairs of
girder A girder () is a Beam (structure), beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a sta ...
s and 107 burdens of stone were brought to the construction site. The stones were brought from
Lasnamäe Lasnamäe is the most populous administrative district of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The district's population is about 119,000, the majority of which is Russian-speaking. Local housing is mostly represented by 5–16 stories high panel b ...
, where a stonemasons village was located. The names of the carriers have been documented. Crude stones were brought for the bricklaying, but some of the details had to be made of cut stone. The main construction – foundations, walls and vaults – was built out of limestone brought from the limestone plateau, limestone brought from stone pits near the city and all put together using lime mortar. In 1403, the stones were cut and an arcade, pillars supporting the vaults, window jambs, etc. were built. The pillars of the arcade and the main portal in the western section that had an important role in the development of the building style of Tallinn, were built by Ghercke himself and his helpers.Eesti kunsti ajalugu, Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Ajaloo Instituut, p 378 The smaller southern portal of the cathedral () was used as an example. It is known that the stonemason Yckmele built the pillars for the wine cellar and 200 blocks for the outer corners of the building. The windows were built by master Keyzner, one of the large family of stonemasons. Master Ghercke and his two helpers were paid five Rigan marks (one Rigan mark weighed 207.8 g of silver). The construction work was finished at the end of 1404. The masters who had placed the tiles, glazed the windows and cleaned up the debris, got their salaries. The town council celebrated Christmas in a new building. The construction had lasted for two and a half years. The builders worked only in summer. A white lime coating covered the walls and left clean stone-constructions, that were made glossy, for many centuries. The construction works continued later: the roof and a tower were repaired, the windowpanes and staircases were changed and the ovens were set.Tallinna raekoda
lemill.net, visited July 28, 2013
The Golden Age of the historical Tallinn was a period from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century. The economical prosperity of the Hanseatic times made architecture and artistic creations possible. The vane Old Thomas was established above the town hall in 1530 (the current vane is its exact copy; the initial vane is in the town hall's basement and the vane from 1996 is in the city museum ()). Heinrich Hartmann, who was from a well-known molder family, prepared a bell for the town hall at the end of the 16th century. In the 17th century the town hall got a new spire that was made by master builder Greiger Graff. The sharp Gothic spire was replaced with a current spire in a
Late Renaissance Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. ...
style in 1627–1629. "It can be said by the bricks with one sign, that several of the façade works, the repairs of the tower’s console and gable, the installation of new decorative gargoyles and the works of the interior, were done in the same time or at least solidly," architect Teddy Böckler said. "Apparently, the partitions were built in the grand hall between the pillars and the bulkhead at the height of the consoles, between the years 1630 and 1650. The fireplaces were built to heat these small rooms. Formerly, there were no rain deflectors that would reach the ground. The dragon-headed gargoyles from stone or iron were on the eaves instead of these. They had to lead the water away from the building. The
coppersmith A coppersmith, also known as a brazier, is a person who makes artifacts from copper and brass. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. The term "redsmith" is used for a tinsmith that uses tinsmithing tools and techniques to make copper items. Hi ...
Daniel Pöppel hammered dragon-headed gargoyles from the copper-plates simultaneously with finishing the tower. Now they are in the town hall because of their beauty. In 1652–1652, the main entrance of the town hall was rebuilt and transferred to the central part of the building, which is characteristic of
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
architecture. The main portal was closed. The arcade and the windows of the basement and the first floor, which revealed the originality and representation of the town hall, were walled up. The citizens' hall was divided into two floors and was divided into separate rooms. In 1860, the quadrangular windows were built
ogival An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two- or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture, woodworking, and ballistics. Etymology The French Orientalist Georges Séraphin Colin gives as ...
. In 1944, the spire of the town hall burst into flames and was destroyed in the bombing of Tallinn in the
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. This was the push to renovation after the war. The restorations were extensive. The tower was restored in 1952. In 1959–1960, the arcade was opened again and the traces of reconstructions from the previous century were removed. In 1971–1975 (architect Teddy Böckler, interior decorators Leila Pärtelpoeg and Udo Umberg), the walls and ceilings that had been built later were demolished and the town hall was constructed into a representative institution of Tallinn. The tower's wooden structure that had been restored in 195, was partly rotten by 1996 and the tin coating was broken. So, the spire and the Old Thomas with a symbolic meaning were both replaced. The Old Thomas could have fallen down in case of a bigger storm. The works began in the beginning of 1996, when the needed details were prepared in Albu parish. The parts of the tower were transported to Tallinn in June – the assembly and covering with copper tiles had already begun. It took 1.4 tonnes of copper plates to cover the wooden structure of the tower. In the last week of work on Wednesday, the tower's parts were put together and initially, the Old Thomas was placed on the tower next to the town hall tower. The old tower had to be strengthened so that it would not decay during the work. The upper part was raised at 8:45 a.m. Initially the work was planned to be finished at 3:00 p.m but was delayed until night. The wind rose and when only the last part of the tower was left to be raised, there was a risk that the wind would disturb the work. Finally, at 7:00 p.m., the last part of the tower was taken to its place. The tower's construction and placement were worked out by the project office Sille, engineer Danil. Plans were carried out by AS Stinger, led by Voldemar Metsaallik. The spire was put up with the help of Pekkaniska aerial platform.Triin Parts
Tallinna raekoda sai uue torni ja uue tuulelipu
postimees.ee, visited July 28, 2013
During the restorations in 1970, one huge medieval hall was restored. It had been rebuilt as smaller chambers for over 300 years. The ovens' two foot chimneys that were built to heat the chambers were demolished from the hall to the vaulted ceiling. The hole in the vaulted ceiling that was hacked there in the 17th century was covered with a plastered wooden base hanging on the ropes.Raekoja korstnajalatükk lõhkus saali lae
tallinn.ee, visited April 17, 2003
In 1996, the Old Thomas might have lost his sword when the old tower was lifted down. The Old Thomas' fastenings were almost completely unfixed and the water dripped from the tower sphere underneath the vane. Apparently, the sword could have fallen down with a storm on the town hall's roof or ended up in the house of a souvenir collector. In Tõnu Lauk's opinion, the Old Thomas decayed quickly because in 1952, the statue was left unpainted. In addition, nothing was done to prevent the rusting of fixing details. In addition, the wooden structure was built improperly. Water flowed in and the tower rotted quickly. During the construction of the new tower and a vane, these mistakes were kept in mind. Old Thomas was primed with red tin, painted and partly
gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
. The light-green vane is allegedly exactly the same as the original. Old Thomas' face, neck, feet, sword, flag and the tower sphere on which the statue stands are golden. It took about four grams of golden plates for all of this. The change occurred in 1992 from architect Böckler from AS Vana Tallinn. He stated that complete gilding was not common before. The first Old Thomas from the year 1530 was also partly gilded. The original of Old Thomas and the dragon-head-shaped
gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...
s that are also partly gilded confirm that saying. The
spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
had lost its initial shape until that time because of the many restoration projects over the years. The current tower is more like the Niguliste church. It is more slim so that there is no room to move in the external balcony. The current spire is more characteristic of the 17th century Late Renaissance period. Until the construction works in autumn, the spire was red but then it was coloured green. Reconstructing the tower cost the city administration 1.8 million crowns in the old currency (Estonian crowns). The money was taken from the town's budget. Tallinn Town Hall's attic was cleaned in 2002 and 2003. The construction company demolished the chimney to "the level of the attic floor" that had emerged from the rubbish that had accumulated in the vaults. The people undertaking the demolition did not dig through it themselves. About 300 tonnes/70 truckloads of rubbish were carried out from the vault's top. The vast majority was the ground that filled the gaps between arch domes and which historically fulfilled the role of heating. More than 300 findings were found during the excavation, among them were unique documents and things. During the past ten years they have been examined, cleaned and preserved and a small selection of them is on exhibition in the town hall's attic.Tallinna raekoda eksponeerib põnevaid pööninguleide
tallinn.ee, visited July 3, 2013
Letters written to the town council and aldermen from the 14th–16th centuries, medieval firefighting equipment, tools, revolutionary leaflets from the year 1905, and more are on display. Teddy Böckler (born 17 May 1930 – died 8 December 2005), was Tallinn Town Hall's restoration architect from 1959 until the last restoration phase that was finished according to his project in 2006. Most of the elements of the interior decor were not thrown away as the town hall's architect back then – Böckler – thought that they were a nice, complete and dignified part of the interior. In addition to the citizen's hall furniture, carbon black polyester lacquer partition doors called piano doors, which were very fashionable at the time and are in harmony with the other black elements of the interior, remained. The director of the town hall, Elviira Liiver Holmström, said that in addition to being restored, the town hall was partly reconstructed. Because of this, the town hall kitchen got back its casing pipe, which was once demolished. The chimney is partly a stairway where a spiral staircase leads to the attic. The attic was cleaned of dust and renovated and has become a museum and place for exhibitions. In 2003, on 17 April, a huge piece of chimney from the 17th century that had been found while excavating the layer of rubbish in the attic fell through the big hall's ceiling; the hall was closed to events until 5 May. According to Böckler, the human-height piece from the fireplace stayed untouched during the restoration works in the 1970s. Two-metre high parts on the foot chimney were cleaned during the excavation of the Town Hall's attic. The brick lost its support from friction and relied on the wooden cover of the vaulted ceiling, of which the rope broke at night. At the moment of the accident, there were no people in the room. In 2008, a medieval well and different models were found under the floor. The accounting room located on the second floor that had been the aldermen's workroom – and from the end of the 19th century until the 1970s the mayor's cabinet – was innovated in the same year. Tallies from the 16th and 17th century were copied, the copies were exhibited and the whole room was redesigned. In 2009, Tallinn Town Hall underwent repairs for two months from February to March and the building was closed. Major repairs were planned. Initially there were plans to make floor repairs and large renovations. Floor tiles from dolomite were planned to be replaced with
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
. In addition to excavation, an underground drainage was planned to be opened to examine its condition; in addition, the expected findings were intended to be exhibited. Due to the lack of money, the scale of the project declined. Repairs were done in the basement hall, but events were not held in the upper hall due to the construction dust and noise. The walls of the ceiling had become friable to the touch and had started to decay. The ceiling in the basement was cleaned from the hatched and dirty latex colour and whitewashed. In addition, repairs were made in the staff room, which was given new furniture and lighting, as the rooms were too dim before the repairs.


Tower

The town hall tower was built along with the town hall in 1402–1404. In the beginning, the tower had a gothic style
pyramidal A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as triangu ...
spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...
, which was replaced in 1627 by a renaissance-shaped spire (height 26 metres). The height of the tower starting from the lower part of the arcade is 64 metres.Tallinna raekoda
veeb.tallinn.ee, seen July 28, 2013
It is possible to climb up into the Town Hall tower and see the old town from a completely different angle. It is not possible to get to the tower's
dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
edge where the borders can be seen, but the first windows can still be reached (exactly to the tower's clock). Half of the windows have metal nets in front of them; the others have bars. The staircase leading up is steep, but as the tower is not very high, it is not a problem. Writings about the tower's history can be seen. The narrow staircase allows only one guest to come and go. So, getting from one side to the other is not very simple, however the stair bays sometimes give the opportunity to let faster people pass. The staircase leading to the tower has 115 stairs. The clock balcony is located 34 metres above the ground.


Old Thomas

The Old Thomas (Estonian: ) figure is an important symbol of Tallinn. The first vane depicting the famous soldier was placed on the top of the town hall in 1530. Arguably, the model for the vane was a peasant. As a young boy, he became famous for winning the crossbow competition held by the Baltic German elite, where a colorful wooden parrot placed on the top of a post was shot down. He was the only one to shoot it down after a long competition. As his post-natal status did not actually allow him to compete, he did not get the prize. Instead, thanks to the Mayor, he received the eternal glory of being a city guard. The brave war servant stayed on guard until 1944 when the tower burst into flames in a bomb attack in March. In 1952, the burned spire was restored and a copy of the Old Thomas was installed. The original, the Old Thomas from 1530, is now in the ancient basement of the town hall. In 1996, the Old Thomas was again replaced, as the one from 1952 was in bad condition. The Old Thomas from 1952 is in the Tallinn City Museum.


Interior


Tapestries

In 1547, the Tallinn town council ordered arrases and bench tapestries. The tapestries were knitted using dyed wool with natural textile colors. They were made in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
in the city of
Enghien Enghien (; ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1January 2006, Enghien had a total population of 11,980. The total area is , which gives a population density of 295 inhabitants per km2. ...
. The details of the story of
King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...
are depicted in the tapestries. On each one there are three Tallinn coats of arms as an identification of the client and the year the tapestry was made (1547) is written above the coat of arms. Since 1937, these tapestries have belonged to the Tallinn City Museum. There are copies in the Tallinn Town Hall. The nine-metre original of the Tallinn tapestries is kept in the Tallinn City Museum textile warehouse. The tapestries, which are five and a half centuries old, are so valuable that they cannot be touched with bare hands. The copy in Tallinn Town Hall was made in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
by a company named Hines of Oxford for the 600th birthday of the Tallinn Town Hall. The tapestry-making was directed by photographs and unfaded wool samples taken from the back of the carpet. Göran Bo Hellers, a professor at the
Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university. Since 2018, KTH consist ...
in Sweden, looked at the tapestry woven in the Netherlands in 1547 and found that a medieval political message is hidden in it, which invites Tallinn to join Europe. He thinks that the message in the tapestries invites Estonia to a Catholic state and under the central power of
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
. Five hundred years before that happened,
Karl V Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) fr ...
tried to connect different parts of Europe into a unitary Europe. He tried to become the ruler of the united Europe and the pictures depicted on the tapestries propagate that in 1547. The ancient King Solomon could represent Karl V himself, the emperor of
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. The Netherlands, the country where the original tapestries were made, belonged to Catholic Emperor Karl at that time. Tallinn had become
Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
during the Reformation. Five and a half centuries later the dream of Karl V came true. Despite some minor disagreements, Europe is more united than ever and Estonia is again a part of Europe. The seven colorful tapestries that decorate the main building in Tallinn were ordered from the Netherlands by the alderman Arent Pakebusch, who had prepaid 150 marka. After finishing the tapestries in 1548, he paid 341.5 marka and 4 killings. Two eight-metre-long tapestries depict Israel's king and a country gold-coverer Solomon's stories about his life from the Old Testament. Five shorter tapestries depict colorful plant ornaments. The tapestries were brought into the parlour of the Town Hall only in very solemn cases. The tapestry brought the room to life and made the walls, which act as wind baffle plates, warmer. Tallinn Town Hall ordered the medieval tapestries' copies from an
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
company, Hines of Oxford. According to the words of Elvira Liiver, it is a miracle that the tapestries have survived. In the 20th century, there were two occasions when Tallinn almost lost its valuable tapestries. In 1909, the city administration had very many Estonians in it despite Estonia belonging to the Russian empire. City commissioner and businessman Albert Koba wanted to sell the tapestries and build a school or a hospital with the money. The community stepped forward. Very many articles were published, even in the newspapers of Riga and Saint Petersburg. With the help of public pressure, the tapestries were not sold. During the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the famous tapestries were taken in sealed boxes to Moscow to be safely hidden away for the duration of the war. They could easily have stayed there, as did the assets of the
University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.
. Politician Jaan Poska managed to obtain the return of the tapestries, along with other valuables from Russia, with the Treaty of Tartu (). The tapestries have been the property of the City Museum () since 1937.


The Town Council

The Danish king Erik IV affirmed
Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...
's city right to Tallinn in 1248, based on which the Town Council that started working in the Town Hall was chosen from Hanseatic merchants. Through this step, Tallinn stepped into the European juridical space. The town council worked in the Town Hall until 1970. Until now the building on municipal property has functioned as a historical representative building. One of the most important privileges of the free town was to create a town council/
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
. The magistrate's task was to "observe the town's benefit and wealth". The town hall declared the law, made bargains, and had its own stamp; the town hall also minted money, appointed people to positions, looked after discipline and trade in the whole town, disposed of the property of the town, conducted the town's security, organized the building of insurance and keeping the military forces, held the court, and looked after the completion of judgements. The town council paid attention to citizens' households and appearance and accepted clothing ordinance. In addition, the most important questions were resolved at the town council: how many new towers would be built in the town wall, what would happen to thieves caught in the act, how many guests a merchant could invite to a wedding and how many ''
pood ''Pood'' ( rus, пуд, r=pud, p=put, plural: or ) is a unit of mass equal to 40 Funt (mass), ''funt'' (, Russian pound). Since 1899 it is set to approximately 16.38 kilograms (36.11 pound (mass), pounds). It was used in Russia, Belarus, and Ukr ...
s'' (Estonian: ) of golden jewelry a jeweler's wife could wear. The town council's task was to represent the town in the international arena – contracts with foreign rulers and cities, fulfilling obligations as a member of the Hanseatic League and taking part in Hanseatic Days (), holding trade negotiations, the defence of citizens' rights abroad, securing town justice and discipline and maintaining the town's defence capacity, accounting for the town's real estate, civil charges and collecting other taxes, and partial accounting for churches' income and expenses, etc. The Town Council kept invoice-,
annuity In investment, an annuity is a series of payments made at equal intervals based on a contract with a lump sum of money. Insurance companies are common annuity providers and are used by clients for things like retirement or death benefits. Examples ...
-, land and citizens' books, maintained correspondence with other inland and foreign authorities, and examined citizens' applications and complaints. The town council was thus the highest power of the town.Tallinna raekoda
tallinn.ee, visited July 23, 2013
At first only the aldermen were chosen to be the members of the town council – they were the advisers who were chosen from the merchants. The number of the aldermen was not permanent; at the end of the 16th century there were 14. Usually the number of the aldermen fluctuated from 19 to 25. The aldermen were led by four
burgermeister Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...
s. At the latest, from the mid-16th century a city lawyer was also a member of the town council. In addition, the employees were in town council service, and they were not part of the town council; these included a writer, a servant of the court, a caretaker, and others. The town council meetings were usually held in the town hall, in the writer's room near the market square (Town Hall square) or in the Church of the Holy Spirit that was also used for common services. One of the burgermeisters, usually the most experienced and the best jurist, was a chairman who led the town council's meetings for one year. Taking this great post, the chairman certainly asked the other aldermen if they accepted his candidacy. The town council operated in two shifts: only half of the council's members served at once, who formed a so-called sitting town council (German: ). The half that was not currently serving was called an "old" or "resting" town council (German: ). As initially the alderman post was an honorary post, they had the free year to organize their own lives and business. Still the "old town council's" members took part in very important decisions or filled the most important public jobs, for example, bill accountant (, ) or warden of the Pühavaimu shelter for
leper Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria '' Mycobacterium leprae'' or '' Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve da ...
s. From the 13th century the chairmen were two burgermeisters and the number of aldermen fluctuated from 19 to 25. Members of the town council were only merchants with an irreproachable reputation. The aldermen's posts were lifelong. Aldermen had to be born from a legal marriage and they had to own real estate within Tallinn's borders, but they were not allowed to earn a living by
handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...
, i.e. they were required to be merchants. To avoid the misuse of power, brothers, fathers and sons could not be elected to the town council at the same time; relatives were not allowed to participate in or stay for the elections. The elections were usually held on St. Thomas’ Day, 20 December. (This might be the reason why the town hall's vane is named the Old Thomas). The doors of the town hall were closed and the burgermeister reported the names of the candidates (two people nominated for each position). Things were decided by a secret election with an absolute majority of votes needed. After the elections, the doors were opened and the whole town council gathered near the open windows of the town hall. The chairman reported the names of new aldermen with a loud voice; the citizens who had gathered on the square welcomed them. Every free town was allowed to mint coins. Coinage took place only when the town council ordered it. The town had its own coin craftsman and a coin chamber. In the Middle Ages, paper money was unknown and only coins were in use. Every coin was worth as much as the metal in it.


The Town Council as the symbol of an independent city

The change of the squire did not necessarily bring any important changes for the town council. A separate chapter of the history of the municipality of Tallinn is the so-called vicegerency time, when the empress Katherine II temporarily replaced the town council as the city administration with the city ''
duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...
'' with her city law in 1785 – the so-called charter to cities. The former rights of the town council were restored by emperor Paul I. A breakthrough in the history of the municipality of Tallinn started in 1877 on 26 March, when the general Russian city law of 1870 was validated in the Baltic cities with the ''
ukase In Imperial Russia, a ukase () or ukaz ( ) was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leadership (e.g., Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' or the Most Holy Synod) that had the force of law. " Edict" and " decree" are adequate trans ...
'' of emperor Alexander II. The town council was replaced by an elective council () and the city agency (). The also chose the mayor. The first elections of the Tallinn took place on 24 and 25 November 1877. The first meeting of the new was on 22 December 1877; Oscar Arthur von Riesemann was chosen to be the first mayor in this meeting. The town council only remained as a judicial authority. On 9 July 1889 the Russian court act of 1864 inured and the Tallinn town council was eliminated. The last festal meeting of the town council was held on 17 November 1889. The town council is a shorter form of the magistrate. The magistrate was a council that led independent cities during the Middle Ages. The time of the development of the town council is not known. It could have been in the 1230s, when Danish, German, Scandinavian and Slavic craftsmen and merchants started to gather in the already-existing Estonian settlement. The Tallinn town council was mentioned for the first time in the record given by Erik IV on 15 May 1248, which validated Tallinn's right to use the Lübeck law. The rights of Lübeck's citizens were an example. From that time on, the Tallinn town council remained the leading institution of almost all of the fields of the city for six and a half centuries. The victory of such independent cities was an important step at that time which meant that the city was free from the power of the king and the feudal lords. The feudals thought that the existence of such cities was "breaking the laws of God and humans". This victory did not come easy. The struggle was successful only thanks to the fact that cities were striving for independence all over Europe. Each year, the town council extradited its own regulations and orders (', ) supporting on the Lübeck law, which were publicly announced to the citizens. When making more important decisions, the town council had to consider the opinions of important guilds, the most powerful of which was the Great Guild. The fact that both the town council and the Great Guild used the same image on their coat of arms – a white cross on a red background – refers to their close relations. The members of the town council were elected to a lifelong position, but after a certain amount of time they were allowed to disconnect themselves from their duties so as to develop their businesses. In August 1255, the rights of Tallinn were revalidated, a month after the first Codex of Tallinn was put together, which had 99 articles in it. Fourteen parchment pages have remained from the codex (the 15th is ruined, but the text has copied itself on the clean 16th page).


Regulation from 22 January 1525

"In the year 1525, on a Sunday after the day of Fabianus and Sebastianus, the honorable Town Council let everybody and anyone, who were connected to this city, both clergymen and seculars, to strongly ask and announce that if anyone has any property such as gold, money and other valuables, silver forging, odds-and ends, seals, historical records, or any other wealth, that belongs to the Black brother's monastery and has been gotten from the monks in there as a deposit or in any other way or kept by self, the honorable Town Council must know about this at once and it must be given to them. Otherwise everything that is found from anybody or that is arrested, is considered to be stolen and according to this, the hider of this wealth is not left unpunished." The regulation of the town council cited above contains, in a combined
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
, earlier parts which were written in the early 16th century and later parts from the 1550s. In addition, there exist transcripts whose original versions originate from the beginning of the 15th century. The basic part volume contains different craftsmen constitutions including different versions about painters,
spinner Spinner may refer to: Technology * Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller * Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells * Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in ...
s,
stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...
s, smiths, goldsmiths, bakers, sadlers,
butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...
s,
teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...
s,
furrier Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific item ...
s and
cobbler Cobbler(s) may refer to: *A person who repairs shoes * Cobbler (food), a type of pie Places * The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland * Mount Cobbler, Australia Art, entertainment and media * ''The Cobbler' ...
s constitutions from the 15–16th centuries. In addition to these, there are some Town Council regulations, of which the most interesting ones are ff.79r–89r provisions from the
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
regarding reorganizations of church life in 1524 and 1525. The important part of what is known about the town hall actions is connected to the Reformation – for example, new church management, demands to return church property stolen due to
iconoclasm Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...
, and in this context, awareness of the existence the iconoclastic movement itself generally originates from this archival document. A regulation on 22 January 1525 was driven by the fact that dissolution of the fraternity of the Ministerial Brothers of Tallinn did not help to regain the important part of the fraternity's property, because the brothers had hidden more valuable moveables and documents largely near Harju and Viru
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...
s, but also partly in the houses of citizens. After the dissolution of the fraternity on 12 January 1525, the management of the abbey (prior Augustinus Emsinckhoff, lecturer and subprior Thomas de Reken and procurator David Sliper) was taken into custody to force them to reveal information about the location of the abbey's treasure and privileges. The reports of all three have remained, but are not dated. Judging from the hints that can be found in these letters about the negotiations between the procurator and prior about the issue of treasure, the reports were compiled probably after issuing the town council regulation. At the time of issuing the regulation, it was probably known the houses of Tallinn's citizens contained the property; its exact location was apparently unknown. It cannot be excluded that the town hall had more complete details or at least assumptions about the concealer; however, unwilling to use force, they initially attempted to seize the property voluntarily. Interesting is the wording of the regulation. Firstly, it is remarkable that the regulation does not refer to the citizens or inhabitants, but to everyone connected to the town. As it was said, the Dominicans did not only store their property in the houses of Tallinn's inhabitants; the town hall could have had information about it (the penalization of the people living outside of the town was a juridical problem for the town hall). Appealing to the clergy as well as to laypeople was a formality of the stronghold of the elite in that time because the prosecution of clergymen was very doubtful in a Catholic town. Some expressions that concern the distribution of the brothers' property are with a certain content and refer to the fact that the delivery process took place according to all the moveable deposition rules cannot be excluded that with a judicial involvement. What these rules were like is unknown – any remaining medieval acts from Tallinn do not describe such a procedure. It is possible that a more universal civil right was used. There are no facts about the results of agitation. It can be assumed that nothing important was achieved – there are no longer inventories of the abbey's property among the town hall's documents and the conventory's archives need separate investigation. The regulation cited above is only one example of how energetically the secular power intervened in church life at the time of the Reformation.


Watch guard

The Tallinn Town Hall had its own watch guard. The guards kept order in the town, but also observed whether the enemy was approaching the city or if a fire had broken out from the tower. When a disaster endangered the city, the alarm was raised on the clock balcony. The creator of the alarm clock, which dates back to the year 1586, is Tallinn artillery craftsman Hinrik Hartmann. There is writing on the lower edge of the clock stating The meaning of this is: "Glory to God in the highest. Year 1586 of our Lord. Everyone should keep their own fire and bonfire so as not to cause any harm to the city." Until the 20th century, the clapper of the alarm was pulled from the rope on the hour according to the number of hours. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the chimes have been struck by a clock which is located on the town hall's façade, with the help of an electronic system.↑ http://www.mg.edu.ee/comenius/?lang=ENG&show=24&page=tallinn, visited July 6, 2013


The March 1944 bombing of Tallinn in World War II

Tallinn had already experienced several air raids, but in 1944, 8,000 buildings, allegedly a third of the capital of Estonia and about 50% of its housing, were destroyed in the
bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...
s of 9 and 10 March. A medieval weighing house along with many other buildings was destroyed by a bomb hitting the Town Hall Square. The air raid started unexpectedly in the evening at 7:15 p.m. and its first wave lasted until 9:25 p.m. At 1:00 a.m.a second wave of bombers arrived in the city and the bombs kept on falling until half past three in the morning. About 280 of the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
's bombers took part in both of the air raids. A massive number of explosive, incendiary and
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...
bombs were dropped on the city. The spire of the Tallinn Town Hall burst into flames in the first air raid.


See also

*
Vanalinn Vanalinn (Estonian for ''"Old Town"'') is a subdistrict () in the district of Kesklinn (Midtown), Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a population of 4,939 (). See also *Tallinn Old Town Tallinn Old Town () is the oldest part of Tallin ...
(Tallinn's Old town) * Old Thomas, a weather vane on top of the spire of Tallinn Town Hall * Town Hall Square, Tallinn *
List of city and town halls This is a list of city and town halls. Buildings used as the seat of local government are in this context classed as city or town halls. Argentina * Buenos Aires City Hall * La Plata City Hall * Palacio de los Leones Armenia * Yerevan City ...
*
Architecture of Estonia This article covers the architecture of Estonia. History Ancient Estonia A distinguishing feature of early Estonian architecture are the many strongholds and hill-forts found throughout the country, for example Varbola and Valjala strongho ...
*
Bombing of Tallinn in World War II During World War II, the Estonian capital Tallinn suffered from many instances of Aerial bombing of cities, aerial bombing by the Soviet Union, Soviet Soviet Long Range Aviation, air force and the Nazi Germany, German Luftwaffe. The first bo ...
*
Toompea Toompea (from , "Cathedral Hill") is a hill in the central part of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The hill has an area of and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas. Toompea is part of the medieval Tallinn Old Town, a ...
*
Lübeck law The Lübeck law () was the family of codified municipal law developed at Lübeck, which became a free imperial city in 1226 and is located in present-day Schleswig-Holstein. It was the second most prevalent form of municipal law in medieval and e ...
*
Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...


References


External links


Tourist information about the Tallinn town hallTallinn town hall in Estonica - encyklopedia about Estonia
{{Authority control City and town halls in Estonia Buildings and structures in Tallinn Gothic architecture in Estonia Kesklinn, Tallinn Tourist attractions in Tallinn Tallinn Old Town