Tallinn Jewish Shore Excursion

Meeting by the ship

Meeting by the ship. The start time of the tour is given approximately and will be adjusted depending on your ship arrival time. The exact meeting time will be specified on your confirmation letter.

Kadriorg and Pirita

A drive out to Kadriorg, the seaside park Peter the Great laid out in 1718 around a baroque summer palace he built for his wife Catherine, which is what the name means: Catherine's valley. Niccolò Michetti designed it, and its main hall is one of the finest baroque interiors in northern Europe. The palace now holds the foreign art of the Estonian national collection, the modern KUMU museum stands at the far end of the park, and the president of Estonia works next door in a building of 1938. The drive continues along the shore to Pirita, past the marina built for the sailing events of the 1980 Olympic Games and the ruined convent of St Bridget, founded in 1407 and burned down in 1577.

Modern city centre

A drive through the new centre, where the glass towers of the business district stand within sight of the medieval walls, past Freedom Square with its cross of the War of Independence, the National Library and the Opera House.

Tallinn Synagogue

A visit to the Beit Bella synagogue, opened in 2007 and the first purpose-built synagogue in Estonia since the previous one was destroyed in the bombing of March 1944. Jews settled in Tallinn in the 19th century and were granted cultural autonomy by the Estonian republic in 1926, a rare thing in Europe at the time; the community was almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust and rebuilt after 1991. A guide from the congregation shows you the building when one is available.

Toompea and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

A walk up to Toompea, the limestone hill the Danes fortified in 1219 and the seat of every power that has ruled Estonia since. The castle keeps its medieval towers, among them Tall Hermann, where the national flag is raised at sunrise; the pink baroque wing facing the square houses the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament. Across from it stands Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, finished in 1900 in a late-19th-century revival style with five onion domes and eleven bells.

Dome Church and viewing platforms

The Dome Church, the oldest church in mainland Estonia, founded in the 13th century and rebuilt many times, with a baroque spire added in 1779. Inside, the walls carry the coats of arms of the Baltic German nobility and the tombs of admirals and governors. From the platforms on the edge of the hill the whole lower town lies below, with its red roofs, spires and wall towers.

Lower Old Town

The descent to the lower town, which merchants rather than nobles built. You see Gothic merchant houses with their hoisting beams still in place, the town wall with the towers that survive from a ring of forty-six, and two great churches: St Nicholas, gutted by Soviet bombing in March 1944 and now a museum holding Bernt Notke's Danse Macabre, and the Holy Spirit Church, whose painted clock of 1684 is the oldest in the city.

Town Hall Square

Town Hall Square, the heart of the town for eight centuries. The Town Hall, completed in 1404, is the only Gothic town hall left standing in northern Europe, and the weathervane of Old Thomas has turned on its spire since 1530. On the corner of the square, the Town Hall Pharmacy was already trading in 1422 and is among the oldest pharmacies in Europe still in business.

Return to the ship

The drive back to the cruise port takes about ten minutes