Meistrite Hoov

This guide to Meistrite Hoov in Tallinn opens in the early nineteen nineties, when jeweler Jaan Pärn stood in a half-collapsed courtyard off Vene street and decided to bring it back to life. It reaches into the courtyard's deep past, first recorded in thirteen seventy one, with arched cellars and a round tower staircase dating to the twelve hundreds, and into the unforgiving world of Tallinn's medieval craft guilds, where a journeyman could spend a working life waiting to be named a master. You'll hear what that old title actually demanded of the people who sought it, and how Pärn built his restoration around the same idea. Listen for the sound of hammers and chisels as you walk through the gate.