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The Tallin Town Hall is one of the oldest in the world

By October 24, 2019 No Comments

Citizens Hall

Yesterday I told you about my favorite sites in the split town of Tallin. There is Toompea (upper town) and Vanalinn (lower town). But of all those sites it is very easy for me to tell you my favorite of them all….that is the Tallin Town Hall.

The Parlor

A town hall has been on the same site since at least 1250, but with the new prosperity Tallin was getting as the merchants acted as a go between with Europe and Russia the city flourished. The city council decided a new town hall need to be built and it was completed in 1404. that is over 600 years ago for a government building!

the attic where you can now see the arch of the vaulted ceiling below since they removed all the rubble

The building is roughly 120 feet long by 45 feet wide and has two stories plus the basement. The most beautiful rooms are the Citizens Hall and the Parlour of the Town Hall, but I found the attic the most fascinating. You see it was renovated in 2002 and the first thing they had to do was remove 70 truck loads of paperwork and rubble that had accumulated over 600 years. They found some fascinating paperwork that spans the history of the Town Hall and some of it is displayed in the now open attic.

The bell tower is another popular feature for tourist to check out, but the III Draakon restaurant was my favorite part of the Tallin Town Hall experience. The III Drakon is an old fashion medieval themed restaurant built right into the town hall (next to the tower entrance). Inside the space is dark and candle lit and the landladies are dressed in period clothing. They give you a lot of sass which is part of the fun (although I found one ofthem to be just plain rude). What do they have to eat? Well the menu is quite simple soup (unbelievably good), sausage, and pasties (meat, veggie, and fruit varieties). That is all, but it is all so good and very reasonably priced (especially given you are in the most tourist part of Tallin). No visit to Tallin Town Hall is complete without eating at III Draakon….in fact I went twice!!!!

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