Giidindus- Toompea (0)

TOOMPEA
Toompea (from German Domberg – Cathedral Hill ) is a limestone hill with an area of about 7 hectares in the central part of Tallinn. It towers about 30-40 m above the surrounding areas .
According to the legend it´s the tumulus mound over the grave of the national hero Kalev, erected stone by stone in his memory by his grieving wife Linda.
It is the birthplace of Tallinn - a place where in 1229 the Knights of the Sword built a fortress instead of the wooden Estonian stronghold. Toompea Castle is also one of the most potent symbols of the reigning power . Today Toompea is the seat of the Government of Estonia as well as the Riigikogu, both of which are often simply colloquially referred to as Toompea.
For centuries there was only one access to Toompea - Pikk Jalg - but there is also another way leading up to Toompea - Lühike Jalg, which was made in the 14th century . At present Pikk Jalg and Lühike Jalg are used only by pedestrians. Until the 20th century there was no way down from the western side of Toompea except for a foot- path . The stairs were built in 1903 and called Patkul Stairs after Dietrich Friedrich von Patkuli who had been the deputy Governor in Tallinn during the Great Northern War.
Pikk Jalg (Long Leg) - the original road leading to the ancient Estonian stronghold ( therefore the oldest street in Tallinn) and the only public road connecting the upper and lower town. It was paved with cobblestones already in the 14th century and was considered quite a dangerous place in the old times . It was certainly not recommended to walk along it after dark and it was not an easy road to be taken on a carriage, as the steep rise often proved too difficult for the horses and going down usually required excellent coachman´s skills . The present day 5-storeyed gate tower dates from 1380.
Lühike Jalg (Short Leg) was first mentioned in 1353. This street belonged to the lower town and was used by pedestrians only because it is and was only a stairway street. The relations between the Upper and Lower towns were tense at the best of times as both the rich merchants of the Lower Town and the noblemen and knights of the Upper Town wanted to obtain more power. Due to the conflicts between the two towns the merchants in the Lower Town were afraid of raids from the Upper Town and had the street connecting the two Towns fortified with a wall and gatehouses. The new wall has become known as the Wall of Mistrust. During night all traffic between the Upper and Lower town was stopped and the gates were shut at 9pm.
The Short Leg gate tower at the top of Lühike Jalg Street was created in 1454-56 and it connects Short Leg and Long Leg. It can be considered the most haunted spot in the Old Town, simply due to the number and persistence of reported incidents. Sightings have included a pair of monks, a woman in an old-fashioned dress, and even a fire -spitting dog. In the 1930s some local spiritualists made several attempts to contact the troubled spirit of a monk who had been the town executioner in his earlier life.They failed, perhaps because the monk's ghost must have spoken Latin .
As Tallinn has two "legs" of different length , it is sometimes humorously called "a limping town".
Right from the Danish Conquest Toompea started to develop into the centre of provincial authority , clergy and nobility in Northern Estonia. Most of the vassals chose Toompea for their residence – living in their estates in the conquered countryside was deemed too dangerous; by the end of the 13th century the Great Castle was densely populated.
Toompea has a radial net of streets – all streets start at the Dome Church Square and stretch to the walls of the fortifications.
In 1684 Toompea suffered the most devastating fire of its history. Toompea had been affected by fires in earlier years , but the fire of 1684 was much larger in scale , destroying most of the buildings in the Great Castle, including the cathedral. The Small Castle escaped the fire intact. The fires are one reason why Toompea looks architecturally different and newer than the Lower Town.
Toompea Castle
A wooden fortification was originally built on the same hill in the 9th century, but was toppled by the Danes shortly after 1219 - who then constructed an impressive stone edifice, much of which still remains today. In the summer of 1227 the castle at Toompea was conquered by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword, who remained there for the following ten years and played a key role in the history of the development of Toompea. The Order divided the stronghold into two parts: castrum maius or the Great Castle, and castrum minus or the Small Castle. The Great Castle was located in the place where the Dome Church stands today and it became an episcopal centre. The Small Castle stood in the same place as today’s castle and became the centre of secular power. Immediately after the conquest the Order started to fortify the hill. The first castle- type stone fortess (the Small Castle) was built in the southwestern corner of the hill in 1227-1229, perfectly protected by deep moats and towers.
You can see one of them on the south - west corner of the castle -it´s Pikk Hermann – quite a slender (considering the average thickness of the walls – 2,9 m) 49-metre watch-tower from the year 1371. The tower consists of ten internal floors and a viewing platform at the top with a 215- step staircase leading to it.
It’s commonly recognised that whoever’s flag flies on top of this tower is the ruler of Estonia.The Estonian flag was flown here in 1884, 34 years before the country was to become independent. Subsequent conquerors always marked their success by raising a flag here. Thus both German and Soviet flags have been seen there. Today the national tricolor is hoisted at sunrise (but not earlier than 7 am) and lowered at sunset (but not later than 10pm), except at midsummer when it´s not lowered at all on the night of June 23/24.
On the south- east corner, the tower of “Stür den Kerl” (which can be translated as “ward off the enemy”) was built, on the north -east corner was a round cannon tower Landskrone (“crown of the land ”), and on the north-west corner, which offered relatively good natural protection owing to the hill bank , a small corbelled tower, Pilsticker (“arrow-sharpener”). Three of these towers have been preserved. Stür den Kerl was demolished in the 18th century when the government administration building was being erected.
The core of the fortress was taken up by the Convent House, built to a specific plan and the layout evolved in the course of the Order´s construction activities.In the 1920s the house, which had fallen into disrepair, was replaced with the building of the parliament of the Republic of Estonia that follows in general the layout of the medieval construction. The building was designed by Eugen Habermann and Herbert Johanson, who later proved to be Estonia’s most outstanding architects . The building with its traditionalist exterior and expressionist interior is unique among parliament buildings. The most outstanding room of the building is the parliamentary chamber, with ultramarine walls and a pleated lemon- yellow ceiling, which extends through three floors.
Today the castle complex is made up of several parts: the west wall and the Tall Hermann tower belong to the medieval fortress of the Order of the Brothers of the Sword, the Government Administration building represents the Czarist era and is classic in style, and the building of the Riigikogu, in the castle courtyard, was built at the beginning of the 1920s.