8 Best Sights in Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn's Town Hall Square has a long history of intrigue, executions, and salt (Tallinn's main export in the Middle Ages). You can tour the only surviving Gothic town hall in northern Europe. Old Thomas, its weather vane, has been atop the town hall since 1530. Near the center of the square, an L-shape stone marks the site of a 17th-century execution, where a priest was beheaded for killing a waitress who had offered him a rock-hard omelet. Across the square stands the town apothecary, which dates from 1422.

The early-20th-century Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was originally a symbol of the centuries of Russification endured by Estonia. The cathedral has 11 bells, including the city's largest, which weighs 15 tons.

The stocky guardian of the northernmost point of the Old Town, Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret) is a 16th-century fortification, allegedly named for a particularly hefty cannon it contained. Now it houses the Maritime Museum and a roof with a view of the Old Town. Also part of the Maritime Museum is the historic Seaplane Harbour at Vesilennuki tee 6, as well as two historic ships.

A 15-minute taxi ride from the center, the 207-acre Open-Air Ethnographic Museum provides a breath of fresh air and an informative look into Estonia's past, from farm architecture to World War II–era deportations.

The baroque palace, built by Peter the Great in 1718 and named after his wife, Catherine I, merits a visit not just for its impressive and thorough exhibition of 16th- to 20th-century art, but also for the palace's architectural beauty and manicured gardens. Kadriorg Palace offers a glimpse into history, with Estonian and European masterpieces from, among other places, Russia, Italy, and the Netherlands. It is surrounded by several interesting side buildings, such as a kitchen building and a summer cottage.

At the southern end of the Old Town looms this magnificent, six-story fortifications tower (the name is Low German for "peek in the kitchen"), so called because during the 15th century one could peer into the kitchens of lower town houses from here. The tower is now a museum for Tallinn’s fortifications, including medieval firepower and historical aspects of crime and punishment. It is interconnected with underground bastion passages, the Carved Stone Museum, the Maiden’s Tower museum café, as well as two other towers. From its sixth floor you can enjoy beautiful views of the city.

The 13th-century Church of St. Nicholas, part of the Estonian Art Museum, is famed for its fragment of a treasured frieze, Bernt Notke's (1440–1509) Danse Macabre, a haunting depiction of death.