Tallinn Upper Town

Toompea is a windy hill on which the upper part of the old town sits. It was the seat of foreign power and nobility between the 13th century and Estonia's short-lived independence in 1918. Many of the buildings were built after a great fire in 1684 and are more neoclassical than medieval.


Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, completed in 1900, an unmistakable symbol of Russian authority at the time and still disliked as such by Estonians.


One thing the upper town has in spades, though, is fabulous views...