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Sunday 17 April 2016

TALLINN, ESTONIA: A Tour Guide for Scott


                                                                           


        I've compiled this post for my friend Scott Alpha-Beta-Gamma  (Scottie) who will be visiting Tallinn soon. He should not be confused with Scott F.




                                                               



                                                     TALLINN, ESTONIA (Wiki)


   

Historical names[edit]

In 1154, a town called Qlwn[10] or Qalaven (possible derivations of Kalevan or Kolyvan)[11][12] was put on the world map of the Almoravid by the Arab cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, who described it as a small town like a large castleamong the towns of Astlanda. It has been suggested that the Quwri in Astlanda may have denoted the predecessor town of today's Tallinn.[13][14]

The lesser coat of arms of Tallinn is also the coat of arms ofHarju County and depicts theDannebrogcross.
The earliest names of Tallinn include (RussianКолывань) known from East Slavic chronicles, the name possibly deriving from the Estonian mythical hero Kalev.[15][16]
Up to the 13th century, the Scandinavians and Henry of Livonia in his chronicle called the town Lindanisa: Lyndanisse in Danish,[17][18][19] Lindanäs in Swedish, also mentioned as Ledenets in Old East Slavic. According to some poetical suggestions, the name derived from mythical Linda, the wife of Kalev and the mother of Kalevipoeg.[20] who in an Estonian legend carried rocks to her husband's grave that formed the Toompea hill.[21]
It has been also suggested that in the context the meaning of linda in the archaic Estonian language, that is similar to lidna in Votic, had the same meaning as linna or linn later on meaning a castle or town in English. According to the suggestion nisa would have had the same meaning as niemi (meaning peninsula in English) in an old Finnish form of the name Kesoniemi.[22]
Other than Kesoniemi known ancient historical names of Tallinn in Finnish include Rääveli. The Icelandic Njal's saga mentions Tallinn and calls it Rafala, which is a variant of the name Raphael.
After the Danish conquest in 1219, the town became known in the GermanSwedish and Danish languages as Reval (LatinRevalia). The name originated from (Latin) Revelia (Estonian) Revala or Rävala, the adjacent ancient name of the surrounding Estonian county.

                                                        



















The Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval northern European trading city on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The city developed as a significant centre of the Hanseatic League during the major period of activity of this great trading organization in the 13th-16th centuries.
The combination of the upper town on the high limestone hill and the lower town at its foot with many church spires forms an expressive skyline that is visible from a great distance both from land and sea.
The upper town (Toompea) with the castle and the cathedral has always been the administrative centre of the country, whereas the lower town preserves to a remarkable extent the medieval urban fabric of narrow winding streets, many of which retain their medieval names, and fine public and burgher buildings, including town wall, Town Hall, pharmacy, churches, monasteries, merchants’ and craftsmen’ guilds, and the domestic architecture of the merchants' houses, which have survived to a remarkable degree. The distribution of building plots survives virtually intact from the 13th-14th centuries.
The Outstanding Universal Value of the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn is demonstrated in its existence as an outstanding, exceptionally complete and well preserved example of a medieval northern European trading city that retains the salient features of this unique form of economic and social community to a remarkable degree.

                                                 ESTONIA PROFILE (OVERVIEW)

                                                                      

                                                                  ESTONIA (Wiki)
                                                                  

                                                           THE CITY OF TARTU
                                                      Intellectual, second city of Estonia
                                                       
                                                          Students kissing in Tartu                   







1 comment:

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