PIKK STREET

In the Middle Ages, this was the street of craftsmen and merchants. You can still see their old mansions, whose top floors were used as warehouses for merchandise. At no. 17, the Gothic gateway to the Great Guild, which in the ^15th century was home to Tallinn's wealthiest merchants, houses the History Museum. At no. 20, the more recent Guild of Master Craftsmen of St. Canulte and a statue of Luther. At no. 26, the Black Heads Guild, an association of bachelor merchants whose patron saint was Saint Maurice (hence their name), boasts a facade richly decorated with various motifs and sculptures. No. 24 once housed the St. Olaf Guild, a guild of Estonian, Finnish and Swedish craftsmen. The building houses the St. Olaf Hall, dated 1405. Continuing northwards, you pass the Olevist Church and finally reach the Great Coastal Gate and the Marguerite Tower.

The latter dates from the ^16th century and formed a bastion protecting the entrance to the old town. The gate was built in 1529, and its ogival arch is decorated with the Tallinn coat of arms chiselled in dolomite. The Marguerite Tower, known as Grosse Marguerite, is the most powerful tower in the city's fortified enclosure: 24 m in diameter, with walls 4.70 m thick. It was one of the city's first defensive towers. It now houses the Musée de la Marine. Nearby, a white cross has been erected in memory of the 852 victims of the Estonia ferry disaster in the Baltic in 1994.