Resembling a cross between a nuclear bunker, a WWII sea-fort and some inscrutable temple to a vanished god, the Linnahall is in fact a covered concrete arena built for the 1980 Olympics. Originally the Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport, it's an extraordinary structure – rotting, barred, weed-strewn and comprehensively graffitied. Heritage-listed and badly decayed as it is, it's now earmarked for restoration as a concert and convention venue, and has been recently fenced off to keep out the curious.
Shutterstock / kavalenkau
Linnahall
Kalamaja & Telliskivi
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.83 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…
4.22 MILES
This sprawling ethnographic and architectural complex comprises 80 historic Estonian buildings, plucked from across the country and resurrected in…
1.68 MILES
This futuristic, Finnish-designed, seven-storey building is a spectacular structure of limestone, glass and copper that integrates intelligently into the…
0.72 MILES
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…
0.64 MILES
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…
1.43 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…
0.63 MILES
When this cavernous, triple-domed building was completed in 1917, its reinforced-concrete shell-frame construction was unique in the world. Resembling a…
0.97 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…
Nearby Kalamaja & Telliskivi attractions
1. Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art
0.13 MILES
Despite its highfalutin name, this grungy old warehouse space is more slapped together than slick. It started as a squat collective in 2006, and…
0.31 MILES
Attached to the Great Coast Gate, this rotund 16th-century cannon tower once protected a major entrance to Old Town. It's now one half of the Estonian…
0.41 MILES
From 1549 until 1625, when its 159m steeple was struck by lightning and burnt down, this (now Baptist) church was one of the tallest buildings in the…
0.43 MILES
A restored limestone warehouse – the former Rotermann Salt Store – houses this modest museum, displaying building and town models (many of them from…
0.44 MILES
A sea fort built in the classicist style in 1840 as part of the defences of the Russian Empire, Patarei was subsequently used as a prison by the Estonian…
0.47 MILES
Formerly producing hushed dread in Tallinn's Soviet-era citizens, the KGB headquarters at Pagari 1 is now a historical site, and the Museum of Occupations…
7. Estonian Museum of Natural History
0.49 MILES
Beginning as the collections of Estonian naturalists in the 19th century, the holdings at this natural history museum exceed 300,000 examples of the…
8. St Nicholas' Orthodox Church
0.55 MILES
Built in 1827 on the site of an earlier Catholic church appearing in 15th-century records, St Nicholas' was the focal point for the Russian traders that…