Tallinn town hall
TALLINN TOWN HALL
Tallinn Town Hall is the only surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe.
Built in the heart of Tallinn, next to a marketplace, the Town Hall has witnessed trade and social
activities for over 700 years. It has still remained the most important representational building in
town.
The building history of the Town Hall goes back to the 13th century, but it acquired its medieval
appearance in 140204.
It was as early as 1248 when King Eric IV Ploughpenny of Denmark granted the Lübeck Charter to
Tallinn. Relying on that document a town council was elected from amongst merchants of the
Hanse and started convening in the Town Hall. It is possible to state on the basis of research
findings that a meeting place of the magistracy and a goods depot in the form of a small, fortified
town hall, constructed of local limestone, existed in its present location already in the mid-13th
century.