Tallinn Town Hall

Museum address:

Raekoja plats 1, Tallinn

Entrance fee 1 EURO

Museum open during operating hours 18:00 - 23:00

Program

Tallinn Town Hall was a symbol of the power and spirit of the medieval city. Night was a time that the authorities, or the town council, tried to control.

Voices in the night were a sign of danger in the Middle Ages! In order to prevent crimes being committed in the darkness, fires being lit by the light of torches and all kinds of satanic temptations, the town council forbade the townspeople to move about the town after 9 o’clock at night. The city gates, which you can get an idea of what they look like in the town hall, were closed and a night-time curfew was imposed.

The exception was the celebrations, which could last until almost midnight during Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The town’s most lavish celebrations were held in the town hall, which was lavishly lit with wax candles and torches. This brought out the colourful paintings – in medieval thinking, colours were also light, helping to ward off darkness. Come and see how the Gothic builders brought light into the town hall and how much colour there is in the Citizen’s Hall, the medieval banqueting hall! Listen to the music that could be heard here at lavish celebrations until the Reformation, when the Lutheran Church banned medieval celebrations.

Stop by the town hall, where offenders were tried for over 600 years, and see the works of art that taught the magistrates about justice. Find out why and how men were warned against falling in love and women falling into a net.

On the first floor, you can get an idea of the restoration of the medieval layout of the Town Hall and the new interior design created by Leila Pärtelpoja half a century ago.

Night of Museums at Tallinn Town Hall – Medieval voices and stories, light and colours await you.

e-mail: raekoda@tallinnlv.ee
Tallinn City Hall website

Accessibility information:

Entrance via the basement of the Town Hall, which is not accessible by wheelchair or pushchair.
There is no disabled toilet in the Town Hall.

Important info

The cellar of the Town Hall, the medieval banqueting hall (the Citizen’s Hall) and the courtroom (the Town Hall) on the main floor and the exhibition “Modernist Middle Ages in Tallinn Town Hall” on the first floor are open on the museum night.

The attic and the tower of the Town Hall are closed on the museum night.