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Many locals would rather you ignored this neighbourhood, but to be honest, that’s impossible. For a start, this sprawling, 30 km² conglomeration of tower blocks, plonked on a limestone plateau east of Tallinn, is huge. It is also home to nearly a third of the city’s population. Built for workers from the Soviet Union to take up jobs at factories and industrial plants producing goods occupied Estonia didn’t even need (around 200,000 workers were settled in Tallinn, more than the city’s entire population in 1945), it is also home to many Estonians, among them artists. Unsurprisingly, it is the cheapest place to live in Tallinn.
The newest of three estates hastily built on the three hills outside the city centre, Lasnamäe was started in 1977 and never finished – the tram line that was to connect it to the town centre, for example, was never built. Seen from the air, especially if it’s cloaked in fresh snow, Lasnamäe has a weird, almost extraterrestrial beauty, but down on the ground it has a grittier look, due in part to the absence of greenery. Ironically, this neighbourhood is a stone’s throw from an ancient Estonian settlement, the Iru Hill Fort, built in the seventh century and burnt down by rampaging Russians two centuries later.
Ask locals for a tour of Lasnamäe and they will probably think you are being ironic. One reluctant inhabitant said she did not feel particularly safe living here, especially at night (heroin is a problem), but added that things are getting better. Carefully tended flower beds go some way to breaking up the grey monotony and the infrastrucure is improving, with larger and better shops opening; the local pizza parlour has a wood-fired oven, an authentic touch unimaginable in the Brezhnev years. Some privately owned blocks are undergoing facelifts thanks to the formation of residents’ committees. The only fear is that if the powers that be fail to make the place more people-friendly, Estonians will make it their mission to move out, leaving a “Russian ghetto” behind.
Sights
Jüriöö Park (St George’s Night Park)
Near the Hotel Susi (Peterburi tee 4).
The memorial commemorates the St George’s Night uprising in 1343, when Estonian peasants were defeated by the German- Danish feudal lords. There are plans to erect a 30-m-high lighthouse in the park in the future.
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