History of Tallinn

[3] As an important port for trade between Novgorod and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population.

In 1285, Tallinn, then known more widely as Reval, became the northernmost member of the Hanseatic League – a mercantile and military alliance of German-dominated cities in Northern Europe.

Medieval Reval enjoyed a strategic position at the crossroads of trade between the rest of western Europe and Novgorod and Muscovy in the east.

A weather vane, the figure of an old warrior called Old Thomas, was put on top of the spire of the Tallinn Town Hall in 1530.

It was followed by Imperial German occupation until the end of World War I in November 1918, after which Tallinn became the capital of independent Estonia.

In 1991, the independent democratic Estonian nation was re-established and a period of quick development as a modern European capital ensued.

Although extensively bombed by Soviet air forces during the later stages of World War II, much of the medieval Old Town still retains its charm.