After our visit to the art museum Kumu on Wednesday afternoon, we headed to Old Town. Gerry had prepared a scavenger hunt about Tallinn's more gruesome history. The students had done the hunt already on Monday, but we got to experience it ourselves as well. The Finnish teachers Antti, Tiina, Eva and Johanna, along with Icelandic teachers Diljá and Baldur set off to find the seven sights of Old Town with Gerry and Ana as our guides.
Leaving the museum, we set off first to the “Two Towers” which acted as the main gate to the city during medieval times. For every place there were some clues to find them, along with some historical information in poetic form. “Two tall round sisters guard the gate, once part of mighty city walls. Flowers now bloom where soldiers once marched.” Enjoying the flower bloom and the bustling streets we headed off to the market square.
The town square had the next 2 places. By the Town Hall Pharmacy, one of the oldest ones in Europe running continuously from 1400’s, there was a spot marked on the ground with brick forming the letter L. In that spot the town folk of Tallinn had executed a priest, after he had complained to and killed a barmaid over a badly made omelet.
Turning around we found high above the rooftops a “weathervane of a brave knight who guards the city”. This man was called Vana Toomas, the “Old Thomas” who, according to folklore, was en excellent shot with a crossbow. He won all the competitions in Tallinn, but because he was low born, his prize was merely the status of being a city guard. As a city guard he was the children's favorite, giving out treats to the children. After his passing the puzzled kids kept asking for him, and for this purpose they erected a small statue on the town hall spiral, where he keeps watch over the city to this day, leaving candy under the pillows of well-behaved kids.
The next target was about an inn with a dark story: “One night, light and laughter filled a room above a quiet street. Music played, but no one dared to enter. The next morning, the house was silent – burned and empty. Some say the groom came from below, and the guests were not of this world…” According to the legend, the innkeeper had been in money trouble for long, and was about to go commit suicide over it. Luckily enough a mysterious man offered to rent the top floor with a hefty sum of money. The money would prevent his bankruptcy, but it came with one condition: he would not be allowed to enter or peek what was going behind the closed doors. After cartloads of goods had been carried upstairs and people mysteriously gone in not to return, the innkeepers curiosity got the better of him. It was not clear what had been happening and what exactly happened to the innkeeper, but the rumours said that the devil himself had his wedding upstairs. Only the scorched window frames remind us of the story nowadays.
Our Scavenger hunt took us up the hill, towards the upper old Town, where “nobles and knights ruled the city from their fortress.” There were two streets going uphill, and one being shorter than the other, were named accordingly lühige jalg & pikk jalg “the short & the long-leg streets”. The saying goes, that all the people of Tallinn had a limp because of the difference in the leg lengths. Walking up the hill we go by the Church of St. Nicholaus, Niguliiste museum. According to the stories, a priest and a vicar had had their heads mounted on spikes by the church doors, after bringing violence to the holy place.
After climbing up the hill we came to the last checkpoint on our hunt. ”The Tower That Watches Over All” was hiding behind the Parliament house, which used to be the castle of the upper old town. Behind it we could see the Pikk Hermann “Little Hermann”, where the Estonian flag is raised on it every dawn. Just as expected, the flag was waving there proudly. The tower used to be a guard tower, and had one of the earliest heating systems installed in it to keep the knights warm.
At this point the TES art teacher Hanna joined us, and we went to have a look at Tallinn from one of the viewpoints. After a group photo we made our way back to the marketplace, and went to enjoy a well deserved dinner. According to the theme we ate in Olde Hansa, the medieval restaurant, and enjoyed good company, food and music.
Antti Pekkala
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