Tallin - Kalamaja and Kopli Bay Travel Guides | Tallin | Sub Regions | Kalamaja and Kopli Bay

Kalamaja (“Fish House”) has what can only be described as soul. Inhabited in prehistoric times by fishermen, it was home in the Middle Ages to a community of Estonians and Swedes, among them boatmen, fishermen and innkeepers. Balthasar Russow, the Baltic Dick Whittingtonwas born here as was, centuries on, the author Jaan Kross. Following the creation of the St Petersburg-Tallinn railway, several engineering works and factories were established in the neighbourhood, which also had the highest concentration of tinned spiced sprat production. Many of the street names are factory-related, or whimsically inspired by Estonian folklore. Old Kalamaja is fast shedding its reputation as a sad slum of dilapidated wooden tenements. First-time buyers and arty types, attracted by the charms of the houses and the area’s proximity to the Old Town and sea, are moving in and restoring the tumbledown dwellings, while the neighbourhood is set for a huge boost when the new Estonian Academy of Arts opens in a former prison. To the northwest is the relatively poor neighbourhood of Kopli, which is emerging from a rough patch: its beach has already been spruced up as part of the city’s plans to make the area more desirable. At the furthest end of Kopli Bay, the open-air Rocca al Mare Museum, with its sea views, windmills and traditional peasant buildings, is ideal for picnics in fine weather or romantic trudges through winter snow.

Sights

Tallinn Science and Technology Centre

Põhja puiestee 29, T 715 2650. Sep-May Mon-Sat 1000-1700. Jun-Aug Mon-Fri 1000-1700. 30 EEK, free with Tallinn Card.

Housed in an old power station, this museum purports to examine the history of energy production from the Middle Ages to the new millennium. It’s low-tech and there are few English explanations but children will relish the array of hands-on exhibits, and the lightning-conductor demonstrations are spectacular.

Jaam Turg (Railway Station Market)

Kopli 1.

Most Estonians say it’s a dump, but junk-lovers may stumble across unusual finds and clothes, not to mention dirt-cheap fruit and veg.

Suur Patarei

Suur Patarei street.

The former seafront prison crops up in the short stories of Jaan Kross who, like so many Estonians, found himself here during the 2nd World War under the Nazi and/or Soviet occuptions. In his short story The Conspiracy, he talks of the taunting “rushing of the sea in the background”. To reach the prison, cross the old railway line and head seaward until you come to a long, white building with barbed wire and barred windows trimmed with red brick. Soon it will offer aspiring artists a chance to unlock their creativity, with the opening of the Estonian Academy of Arts, which should add considerably to the area’s bohemian appeal.

Paljassaare peninsula

Bus 59 from Balti jaam.

It’s worth trekking out here for the superb view of the Tallinn skyline, which featured in many old engravings of the city before it was usurped by Pirita’s picture-postcard panorama. The old fortress walls and compact outline of Toompea are clearly visible, with Pikk Hermann soaring skywards on the right.

Lõime street, Tuulemaa, Ketraja (Spinners) streets

Kopli.

Here you will see examples of late 1940s and 1950s Stalinist architecture, inspired in equal measure by Italian palazzi and grandiose neoclassical architecture. If freshened up, these broad avenues, designed according to the belief that you could be anywhere in the Soviet Union and be equally at home in that great, forward-looking superstate, would be more than elegant.

Stroomi beach

Bus nos 40 and 48 from the post office to the Randla stop.

Once something of a dump, the nearest beach to the town centre is now an attractive stretch, with parkland and elegant globe lights just behind the shore. A bonfire is lit here at midsummer.

Rocca al Mare Open Air Museum

Vabaõhumuuseumi tee 12, T 654 9100. May-Aug daily 1000-2000, buildings until 1800; Sep 1000-1800, buildings until 1700, Oct 1000-1800,buildings until 1600, Nov-Apr 1000-1700, buildings closed. 25 EEK in summer, 12 EEK in winter, free with Tallinn Card. Bus 21 from the centre.

The “Rock by the Sea”, so-named by Baltic German landlord Girard de Soucanton who built his summer estate here in the 19th century, opened as a museum in the 1950s. Eighteenth-century farm buildings from across the country, including old thatched barn dwellings and wooden windmills are assembled here in forests overlooking Kopli Bay, beautiful in summer but also in the winter snow. On weekends between May and August, folk dance groups give humorous displays at 1100. The not always elegant moves involve stepping over sticks and male dancers bumping each other’s bottoms. The museum is also the site of low-key Midsummer celebrations on 23 June. You can rent bicycles from the souvenir shop near the entrance (35 EEK per hr, 65 EEK for 2 hrs).

Loomaaed (Zoo)

Paldiski maantee 145, T 694 3300, http://www.tallinnzoo.ee. 39 EEK, students and pensioners 23 EEK, children 3 and over and pensioners over 70 4 EEK, family ticket 82 EEK, free with Tallinn Card.

Some of the cages for larger animals, such as the polar bear, are distressingly small, but this zoo is doing its bit for the extinct European mink. Home to the world’s only artificially bred European mink population, the zoo has a breeding centre that seeks to reintroduce the mink on the islands of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa.

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