Toompea Castle

This guide to Toompea Castle in Tallinn traces nine hundred years of building on one limestone hilltop, from the Teutonic Order's thirteenth-century tower, Pikk Hermann, to the pink-and-mustard parliament wing raised in the 1920s. You'll hear how the tower's true height plays tricks on visitors, climb through its two hundred fifteen steps and an early hypocaust heating system, and learn how the newer wing's design drifted away from its first sketches. Stand at the tower's base to feel where bedrock ends and stone begins.