IAPL2012-CB-0531-052.. - The International Association for ...

CITY OF TALLINN
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is located
in the northern part of the country on the
coast of the Baltic Sea. Across the Gulf of
Finland, 80 km north lies Helsinki, nearly
300 km to the east, St. Petersburg, and
Riga is about the same distance to the
south.
Due to its auspicious geographical location
Tallinn has been a meeting point of the
trading routes between east and west
throughout the history. Finno-Ugric people
settled in the Tallinn area more than 3500 years ago. In 1154 Arabian geographer al-
Idrisi marked Tallinn on his world map.
In the beginning of 13th century Danish king Waldemar II conquered Tallinn and was
followed by Swedish, German and Russian rulers. All of them influenced Tallinn’s
architectural history that can be seen today in Tallinn’s compact and well preserved
Old Town.
It is unique in Northern Europe and has been
inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Romantic network of crooked cobblestone
streets, two kilometres of the old city wall
and twenty-six defence towers, churches
and convents, the oldest apothecary still
running in the world, passages and courtyards
imposing merchants’ dwellings give a true
medieval spirit underlying the Old Town to
this day.
But not only is the Old Town worth visiting.
The simple, sleek designs of recent buildings
of the Tallinn “City” represent the modern
face of the town – up to date office buildings,
banks, high quality hotels, conference centres,
etc. The success of innovative applications of
information and communication technology
in daily life in Tallinn has drawn world-wide
102