Tallinn Town Hall

Museum address:

Town Hall Square 1, Tallinn

Entrance 1 euro

Accessibility information:

Entrance via the basement of the Town Hall, which is not accessible by wheelchair or baby buggy.

Program

Tallinn Town Hall is more than a couple of hundred years older than the book in Estonian. The Town Hall was built on Tallinn's market square more than 700 years ago, symbolising the right of the city, or the right of the king to rule and judge the city for himself. The oldest codes of law of Lübeck, which are attached to Tallinn, are contemporaneous with the town hall, dating from the second half of the 13th century. Come and see what these rare law books looked like!

Since the medieval world view was that the secular ruler - be he king or rajah - also received his power from God, the art that adorns the town hall reflects this. The artworks depict stories from the Bible and date from the 14th to the 17th centuries. At a time when literacy was the privilege of a few members of the upper classes, the stories of the Bible were told by art. The Town Hall is not without its characters from the medieval romance of chivalry, led by Tristan and Isolde. An eye for an eye is king!

Guided tour "Anno 1525 in Reval Town Hall" at 19.00 and 21.00.

By the time the Lübeck council arrived on the market to burn Estonian-language books, the change of faith in Tallinn had already begun....

The Tallinn council had decided in favour of the new religion. If not the town council itself, perhaps some merchant from Tallinn may have been the subscriber to the first Estonian books confiscated in Lübeck?

Tallinn's town council did not yet turn its back on the old religion. In the same spring of 1525, von Plettenberg, the Master of the Order, visited Tallinn, and was received by the town council with the most violent celebrations, in keeping with Catholic customs.

How was Tallinn's grandest reception organised at the Town Hall? Why was a beaver's tail offered as a feast for the Master of the Order? What was the Town Hall like 500 years ago?

Come to the Town Hall on Museum Night and find out!

For more information: https://raekoda.tallinn.ee/, raekoda@tallinnlv.ee, tel 64 57 900

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