Toompea Castle

Timeline

1. before 9th century

   Ancient Estonian Stronghold

   A wooden Estonian stronghold occupied the summit of Toompea Hill, serving as the earliest defensive works at this site and in use since prehistoric times.

2. 1219

   Danish Crusader Conquest

   A crusade led by Danish King Valdemar II defeated Estonian forces at the Battle of Lindanise and erected the stone fortress known as Castrum Danorum, the Castle of the Danes.

3. 1227

   Capture by the Brethren of the Sword

   The Order of the Brethren of the Sword took the castle from Denmark and began the reconstruction that established the broad footprint of the castle still visible today.

4. 1346

   Sold to the Teutonic Order

   Danish King Valdemar IV sold his Estonian holdings, including the castle, to the Teutonic Order, which held it for the remainder of the Middle Ages as its regional headquarters.

5. 1360s-1370s

   Pikk Hermann Tower Built

   The Teutonic Order erected the great cylindrical southwest tower Pikk Hermann, 48 meters in height, which became the highest point and dominant silhouette of the entire castle complex.

6. 1561

   Castle Passes to Sweden

   With the collapse of Teutonic rule in Estonia, northern Estonia entered the Kingdom of Sweden and the castle's role shifted from medieval fortress to a ceremonial and administrative center.

7. 1710

   Russian Imperial Rule

   After the Great Northern War, the Tsardom of Russia took control of Estonia from Sweden, and the castle became the regional administrative seat of the imperial governorate at Tallinn.

8. 1773

   Baroque Palace Added

   Under Empress Catherine II, architect Johann Schultz added a Baroque and Neoclassical pink palace on the eastern wing, which became the seat of the governorate administration and imperial governor.

9. 1918

   Estonian Independence

   Following the close of the First World War, Estonia declared independence and Toompea Castle was chosen as the political center of the new republic and seat of its parliament.

10. 1922

    Parliament Building Completed

    The Riigikogu parliament building, designed by Eugen Habermann and Herbert Johanson, was completed: traditionalist exterior but the world's only Expressionist parliament chamber inside.

11. 1940-1991

    Soviet and Nazi Occupations

    Through Soviet occupations (1940-41, 1944-91) and Nazi German occupation (1941-44), the democratic parliament was dissolved and the castle hosted only the formal Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR.

12. August 1991

    Independence Restored, Lenin Removed

    Following the failed Soviet August Coup, Estonia restored its independence, and on 22 August the Lenin statue at Toompea Castle was removed from its pedestal as a symbolic end to Soviet rule.

13. 1997

    UNESCO World Heritage Inscription

    Toompea Hill and Toompea Castle were inscribed as core elements of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn, securing international preservation status.

Detailed History

Defensive works on Toompea Hill go back to wooden Estonian strongholds in use since at least the 9th century. In 1219 a crusade led by Danish King Valdemar II defeated local forces at the Battle of Lindanise and erected a stone fortress on the hill, known in Latin as Castrum Danorum, the Castle of the Danes. In 1227 the Order of the Brethren of the Sword captured the castle and began the reconstruction that established the structural footprint visible today. Denmark briefly recovered the castle in 1237, but in 1346 King Valdemar IV sold his Estonian holdings to the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order, as a religious-military order, gave the castle a monastic character with a chapel, chapter house, and dormitory for knights. The four principal towers still recognizable today were erected under the Order: Pilsticker (Arrow-Sharpener), Stur den Kerl (Ward Off the Enemy), Landskrone (Crown of the Land), and the largest, Langer Hermann, known in Estonian as Pikk Hermann, which rises 48 meters. After the Reformation and the wars of the 16th century, the Order lost its Estonian holdings, and by 1561 northern Estonia entered the Kingdom of Sweden. Under Swedish rule, the castle was transformed from a medieval fortress into a ceremonial and administrative seat of political power. In 1710, during the Great Northern War, Sweden lost the territory to the Tsardom of Russia. Reconstructions then turned the castle into a palace: a Baroque and Neoclassical wing designed by Johann Schultz under Empress Catherine II in 1773 was added on the east, housing the governorate administration and the imperial governor's residence. After Estonia declared independence in 1918, a new parliament (Riigikogu) was built on the site of the former Teutonic convent. Designed by Eugen Habermann and Herbert Johanson, the building was completed in 1922. While its exterior is traditionalist, its interior is Expressionist in style and is considered the world's only Expressionist parliament chamber. From June 1940, through Soviet occupations (1940-1941 and 1944-1991) and Nazi occupation (1941-1944), the elected parliament was dissolved and the castle housed only the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR from 1947 to 1990. The failed Soviet August Coup of 1991 enabled Estonia's restoration of independence; on 22 August the Lenin statue at Toompea Castle was removed from its pedestal.

Cultural Significance

Toompea Castle stands among the most resonant symbols of Estonian sovereignty. Inscribed in 1997 as a core element of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn, it crowns what is regarded as the best-preserved medieval Hanseatic city in Northern Europe. The hill of Toompea, whose name means Cathedral Hill, rises some 50 meters on limestone cliffs and embodies the medieval dual structure of Tallinn: a lower merchants' town below and an upper aristocratic and ecclesiastical town above. Two foundation legends converge here: the Danish tradition that the Dannebrog flag fell from the sky during the Battle of Lindanise in 1219, and an Estonian folk tradition that the heroine Linda built the hill stone by stone as a memorial cairn for her husband Kalev. The daily flag-raising at Pikk Hermann, instituted in 1922 and resumed after the 1940-1991 interruption, is a focal civic ritual broadcast nationally on holidays. The Expressionist interior of the parliament building is the only surviving example of its kind, an important piece of early 20th-century Northern European modernism. As the focal point of Tallinn's tourism boom driven by cruise calls and low-cost airlines, the Old Town receives over four million annual visitors.

Architectural Details

Toompea Castle occupies roughly 100 meters north-south by 80 meters east-west on the southern edge of the Toompea limestone plateau. Three architectural eras coexist: the medieval Teutonic fortress on the west, the 18th-century Russian palace on the east, and the 20th-century parliament on the north. The medieval defenses are anchored by four main towers, of which the dominant Pikk Hermann at the southwest corner, built in the late 1300s as a cylindrical limestone tower, rises 48 meters in nine stages and is permanently topped by the Estonian flag. Surviving medieval towers also include Pilsticker (Arrow-Sharpener), Stur den Kerl (Ward Off the Enemy), and Landskrone (Crown of the Land), each built from coursed limestone rubble with thick walls. The eastern Baroque palace, completed in 1773 to plans by Johann Schultz, has a three-story pale-pink rendered facade, a hipped red-tile roof, central pediment, and tall sash windows typical of Catherinian classicism. The northern parliament building, finished in 1922 by Eugen Habermann and Herbert Johanson, hides an Expressionist interior behind a sober traditionalist exterior: the debating chamber has hexagonal stained-glass ceiling patterns, pale-green panelled walls, and joinery in stained timber, geometric and stripped of historicist ornament.