Old Town Wall and Towers

Medieval defensive walls with 20 surviving towers walkable in summer

Tallinn's medieval city wall is one of the best preserved in Europe. Originally built in the 13th century and expanded through the 15th, the wall once ringed the entire lower town with 46 towers; 20 towers and substantial stretches of wall still stand. The most accessible section is along Laboratooriumi and Müürivahe streets, where the towers Nunna, Sauna, and Kuldjala stand in a cluster and can be entered in summer (usually May to October).

Walking along this stretch of Müürivahe — the "Wall Street" — gives a direct sense of the medieval town's scale and how close the wall sat to the daily life of its inhabitants. The sweater wall market below the towers (local knitters selling handmade goods against the base of the wall) has been running for decades and is entirely genuine.

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A story
At its peak in the 15th century, Tallinn's wall had 46 towers and stretched 2.35 kilometres around the lower town. After Estonia's first period of independence (1918–1940), the city wall was deliberately preserved as a symbol of national heritage. The three towers that can be entered — Nunna, Sauna, and Kuldjala — stand in a cluster, and the passage between them gives the only stretch of the wall that can be walked on top.