The Wall around Old Town, Part 1, Climbing the Wall

tags: Old Town, Tallinn, Estonia, cities

The Historic Center of Tallinn, known as "Old Town", was one of the best fortified cities in Europe, with 66 towers adorning the city wall. Today, only 20 or so of these cannon towers remain. The history of Talinn as a trading town is still evident in the beauty of its buildings (for example, refer to the lovely dragons that I photographed on this building, which is now an art gallery).

For a mere pittance, you can gain access to the castle walls and roam around above everyone's heads, absorbing the sights and photographing the old and new portions of Tallinn to your heart's contentment.

The stairs inside the castle walls were very steep and narrow, and the ceilings were very low, too -- an unpleasant surprise for tall people, like me!

I apologize for the poor quality of this image, but it was very difficult to photograph due to the dramatic differences in lighting that you see here. But those differences in lighting combined with the contrasting shapes and colors that you see are the reasons I love this photograph and had to share it with you despite its obvious flaws.

Next, I will show you photographs taken through the windows in the walls and from the top of the wall, where the contrast between the old and the new portions of Tallinn are very dramatic.