Bastion Passages

Old Town

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Tours exploring the 17th-century Swedish-built tunnels connecting the bastions that ring the town walls depart from the Kiek in de Kök tower. Over the years, they've been used as fallout shelters, homeless refuges and punk rehearsal spaces. Bookings are required, and warm clothes (it's about 10°C, or 50°F, down there) and sensible shoes are recommended. Regular tours finish in the Carved Stone Museum, showcasing tablets, statues and other historical lapidary work from Tallinn.

If you plan on visiting Kiek in de Kök and the nearby Maiden, Stable and Gate towers, buy a 'Whole-Museum Ticket', admitting you to the lot (adult/reduced €14/8).

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Tallinn, Estonia - March 19, 2015: St. Nicholas Church (Niguliste kirik) and cupola of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The St. Nicholas Church was founded and built around 1230-1275. Today it houses a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia.

    Niguliste Museum

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    Dating from the 13th century, the imposing St Nicholas' Church (Niguliste kirik) was badly damaged by Soviet bombers in 1944 and a fire in the 1980s, but…

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    Estonian Open-Air Museum

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    This sprawling ethnographic and architectural complex comprises 80 historic Estonian buildings, plucked from across the country and resurrected in…

  • Art Museum of Estonia, Kumu, Kadriorg, Tallinn, Estonia

    Kumu

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    This futuristic, Finnish-designed, seven-storey building is a spectacular structure of limestone, glass and copper that integrates intelligently into the…

  • Tallinn Town Hall at dusk

    Tallinn Town Hall

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    Completed in 1404, this is the only surviving Gothic town hall in northern Europe. Inside, you can visit the Trade Hall (whose visitor book drips with…

  • Great Guild Hall

    Great Guild Hall

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    The Great Guild Hall (1410) is a wonderfully complete testament to the power of Tallinn's medieval trade guilds. Now a branch of the Estonian History…

  • Tallinn, Estonia - July 04, 2016: Kadriorg - baroque palace built for Peter the Great in 1718 now houses the Art Museum of Estonia's foreign collection.; Shutterstock ID 471676259; Your name (First / Last): Gemma Graham; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: BiT Destination Page Images

    Kadriorg Art Museum

    1.77 MILES

    Kadriorg Palace, a baroque beauty built by Peter the Great between 1718 and 1736, houses a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia devoted to Dutch, German…

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    Seaplane Harbour

    1.15 MILES

    When this cavernous, triple-domed building was completed in 1917, its reinforced-concrete shell-frame construction was unique in the world. Resembling a…

  • Telliskivi Creative City

    Telliskivi Creative City

    0.57 MILES

    Once literally on the wrong side of the tracks, this set of abandoned factory buildings is now Tallinn's most alternative shopping and entertainment…

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Nearby Old Town attractions

1. Kiek in de Kök

This stout, five-storey cannon tower was one of Tallinn’s most formidable defences when built in the 15th century. Its name (amusing to English ears) is…

2. Niguliste Museum

0.1 MILES

Dating from the 13th century, the imposing St Nicholas' Church (Niguliste kirik) was badly damaged by Soviet bombers in 1944 and a fire in the 1980s, but…

3. Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

0.1 MILES

The positioning of this magnificent, onion-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral (completed in 1900) at the heart of the country's main administrative hub was…

4. Adamson-Eric Museum

0.11 MILES

Erich Carl Hugo Adamson, a towering figure of 20th-century art in Estonia, is celebrated in this reverent little museum in a historic house with which he…

5. Freedom Square

0.12 MILES

This large paved plaza, once the staging ground for 'spontaneous' displays of Soviet enthusiasm, is now used for summer concerts, skateboarding, impromptu…

6. Toompea Castle

0.13 MILES

This Janus-faced pile turns a sugar-pink baroque facade towards Toompea, and a stern 14th-century Livonian visage to the sea and intervening suburbs…

8. Linda Hill

0.16 MILES

Shaded by the 250-year-old linden trees of Lindamäe Park, this small mound near the top of Toompea is named after Linda, wife of Kalev, the heroic first…