Tallinn - Toomkirik

Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, is situated on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. It is only 80 kilometres south of Helsinki. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century Tallinn was known as Reval.

The first recorded claim over the place was laid by Denmark after a raid in 1219 led by Valdemar II. In 1227, the Order of the Brothers of the Sword conquered Reval and three years later recruited 200 Westphalian and Lower Saxon merchants from Gotland, who settled below the castle and were granted freedom of customs and land. In 1238 Reval fell back to Denmark, Under renewed Danish rule, the city rapidly grew in size and economic importance. In 1248, the Danish king granted it the Lübische Stadtrecht (town charter). Due to the strategic location, its port became a significant trade hub, especially in the 14–16th centuries when Tallinn grew in importance as the northernmost member city of the Hanseatic League.

The king of Denmark sold Reval along with other land possessions in northern Estonia to the Teutonic Knights in 1346.

The cathedral is located on Toompea Hill (Domberg), an independent area that was only merged with Tallinn in 1877. This was the site of Tallinn Castle, built in the 10th or 11th century and replaced by a Danish castle in the early 13th century. Today it is the seat of the head of government, numerous embassies and the Alexander Nevski Cathedral.

Originally, a wooden church was built here by the Danes in the 13th century. In 1229, Dominican monks arrived and began building a stone church. The monks were killed in a conflict between the Knights of the Sword and the vassals who supported the papal legate in 1233 and the church was desecrated. The building was completed in 1240 as a single-nave building with a rectangular choir. Already at the beginning of the 14th century, the church was enlarged. However, the construction work dragged on for almost 100 years. The new longitudinal part of the church, 29 metres long and built according to the principles of a basilica, was completed in the 1430s. The church was badly damaged in the great fire of 1684, when the vaults collapsed and all the wooden furnishings were destroyed. Shortly after the fire, the church was largely restored to its original state.

In the church, there are numerous grave slabs and over 100 coat of arms epitaphs. Also Adam Johann von Krusenstern, the commander of the Russian circumnavigation expedition (1803-1806) is buried here.