Tallin, Estonia

August 26, 2019
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Tallinn may be the most beautiful city you’ve never heard of. The capital of Estonia, Tallinn is a small city in a small country with a turbulent history, particularly with respect to relations with Russia. On our walking tour of the city our guide noted that for Estonia, “NATO is everything”. 

There are about 1.5 million citizens of Estonia, and about 435,000 people who live in Tallinn. Located on the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has close historic ties with Helsinki, Stockholm and St Petersburg. 

The city proper dates back to the first half of the 13th century, but humans settlements are estimated go back 5,000 years. The first recorded claim for the land was made by Denmark in 1219 after a successful raid. After a couple of centuries of fighting between Scandinavian and Teutonic rulers, Tallinn became an important commercial hub because of its strategic location. 

Tallinn is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval cities and is counted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has the largest number of star-ups in Europe, and is the birthplace of Skype. It houses the EU’s IT agency and is the home of NATO’s Cyber Defense Center of Excellence. It is also ranked as one of the world’s top 10 digital cities.

We went on a walking tour of the city with a local guide and took lots of photos in the process. A few are posted below. 

JFB 

Tallinn, Estonia — July 23, 2019. A photo looking down on Tallin from a limestone hill overlooking the town square.
Tallin, Estonia — July 23, 2019. A vertical shot of a side street in Tallin, Estonia with the domes of Alexander Necsky Cathedral rising in the background.
Tallinn, Estonia — July 23, 2019. A tourist makes a donation to street musicians playing in a shopping area.
Tallinn, Estonia — July 23, 2019. Photo of a juice cart vendor giving the thumbs up sign in Tallin, Estonia.
Tallinn, Estonia — July 23, 2019. Photo of a side street in Tallin, Estonia.