Tallinn
Turg and got its present name Raekoja Plats only in 1923. On one side of the square, there was the
House of Weights and Measures where all imported goods were weighed and measured before they
got into the shop.
There were also two pillories the big and the small one in the square. The culprits and those who
were sentenced to death were brought to the pillory. The small pillory (for smaller criminals) was
fixed to the wall of the Town Hall. Both pillories were used when people were birched. The
punishment was carried out by the hangman and his assistants and was considered a great shame and
dishonour. The pillories were still in use in the 19th century. 72 peasants who had taken part in the
disturbances of Kose-Uuemõisa in 1806, were birched in the small pillory (a number of them were
later sent to Siberia). A round stone slab in the square signifies the place of the pillory.
Town Hall Square was not a place of execution, but there was one exception. At the end of the 17th
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