Address: Estonia, Tallinn, st. Pikk
Coordinates: 59°26"33.1"N 24°44"58.7"E
Short description
In the Lower Town of Tallinn, surrounded by defensive fortifications in the Middle Ages, numerous fragments of walls, gates and towers have been preserved.
Great Sea Gate and Fat Margaret Tower from a bird's eye view
The Great Sea Gate, located in the northern part of Old Tallinn, next to the harbor, can easily claim the title of “the most impregnable defensive structures.” The defensive ensemble with watchtowers protected the city from pirate raids and contributed to the prosperity of the trading harbor, attracting the attention of overseas merchants.
The Great Sea Gate, which originally connected the port of Tallinn with Toompea along the line of modern Pikk Street, was built in 1265 by order of the Danish Queen Margaret. In the 16th century, during the reconstruction of the Sea Gate, the Westphalian master Gert Koning added a gun tower with 155 loopholes to it. This squat tower, only 20 meters high, thanks to its thick walls - from 4.5 to 5.2 meters - was a formidable weapon against the attackers. For its impressive size - 25 meters in diameter - the tower was called “Fat Margaret”.
View of the Fat Margaret Tower from Rannamee Street
Protecting the entrance to the harbor and the city, "Fat Margaret" served as the guardian of Tallinn's revenue. The artistic value of the ensemble is enhanced by the small coat of arms of the city carved in stone, located on a dolomite slab, between two embrasures, above the Great Sea Gate. The heraldic emblem is made in the form of a battle shield with a cross, supported by two griffins and crowned with a knight's helmet. In the Middle Ages, a guard was on duty at each loophole of the tower.
In connection with the development of artillery, medieval fortifications were replaced by bastions and reduits, and the Fat Margaret Tower, having lost its defensive significance, began to be used as a barracks, a warehouse, and from the 1830s there was a prison within its walls. From 1905 to 1917, political prisoners were kept in the prison. In 1917, Estonian proletarians set fire to the tower. However, “Fat Margaret” was lucky - on April 23, 1981, a branch of the Estonian Maritime Museum opened in the tower restored by Polish restorers.
View of the Great Sea Gate from Pikk Street
“Fat Margarita” and “Long Herman” - a cheerful couple
Estonians often joke that “Fat Margarita” is the wife of “Long Herman”. Surely the reader guessed that “Long Herman” is also a tower. “Herman” reaches 45.6 meters in height, but its volume is much more modest than that of his wife “Margarita” - only 9.5 meters in diameter. It is worth noting that the “long boy” and the “fat girl” are located far from each other, in different parts of Old Tallinn.
Maritime Museum within the walls of the Fat Margaret Tower
Reminding city guests and Tallinn residents of the terrible times, “Fat Margarita” stores 70 thousand exhibits in its museum collections, but due to limited space, only a small part of them is exhibited. The Maritime Museum of the Tower (Pikk St. 70) displays a rich collection of ancient ship models, navigation instruments, models of the most important lighthouses of the Baltic, the steering wheel of the English steamer "Auk", which sank during the First World War, barrels, ropes, anchors and other items related to with the sea and sailors, fishing gear, etc.
View of the Great Sea Gate and the Fat Margaret Tower from the west
From the observation deck located on the roof of the Fat Margaret tower, amazing views of the street open up. Pikk,
Fat Margaret Tower is located at the end of Pikk Street and, by its diameter, is the largest tower of the city wall in Tallinn.
From the history
The Margaret gun tower was built in the 16th century in front of the large sea gate and was originally called the New Tower. Its dimensions are 20 meters in height and 25 meters in diameter, the thickness of the walls is from 4.5 to 5.2 meters, and the number of loopholes on it is 155. Fat Margaret received its modern name about 150 years ago.
Even today, when there are many large buildings around, this structure surprises with its power. And four hundred years ago it made an even stronger impression.
Above the Great Sea Gate, between two embrasures on a dolomite slab, a small coat of arms of the city is carved in stone, represented in the form of a battle shield with a cross, supported by two griffins and crowned with a knight's helmet.
Currently, the ancient building houses the Estonian Maritime Museum, the exhibits of which tell about the history of seafaring and fish farming, shipbuilding and navigation in Estonia. The museum displays a large-scale model of the ferry Estonia, which sank between Tallinn and Stockholm. Quite ancient objects created even before our era are also on display - fishing utensils made of bone and horn.
- At a time when the warring parties were armed with bows and arrows, crossbows and stones, the higher the tower was, the more convenient it was to attack the enemy. Therefore, they tried to build towers as high as possible. At the end of the 14th century, firearms appeared in the European north - cannons and arquebuses. The more powerful the cores were, the heavier they were and the wider the walls for the towers were required. Then they began to build them thicker and squat.
- All fortresses eventually become unnecessary and useless structures, which are very difficult to find use for. At the end of the 19th century, an extension was erected to house the prison. It was the first building in Tallinn built specifically for a prison. From 1905 to 1917, political prisoners were kept there. During the revolution of 1917, an uprising arose in the city and detachments of workers, soldiers and sailors dealt with the prison guards.
The Fat Margaret Tower protected the entrance to the city and the harbor and thus guarded the treasury of Tallinn.
Opening hours of the Tallinn Maritime Museum in 2019
The exhibition of the Maritime Museum in the Fat Margaret Tower is closed for reconstruction. Opening is expected in autumn 2019.
3 - 5 EURMaritime Museum in the Fat Margaret Tower
- an ancient coastal city that needed to take care of security from the sea. It was for this purpose that the frightening-looking city gates and impressive dimensions were built, which, due to her complexion, was nicknamed Tolstoy. The structure is not only large in size, but also old - it was built back in the Middle Ages.
The strong building is not empty even now - four floors are occupied by exhibits of the famous museum, and the seaside town has something to show. The sight of ships and vessels captures the spirit not only of boys and sea lovers.
What the museum has not saved since the hoary times - nautical maps, plans, the first fishing nets, devices for sea hunting made from bones and horns of animals. There are the most interesting devices for navigation - both ancient and modern.
This museum displays the entire history of Baltic navigation - compasses, diagrams, ship models and marine navigation devices.
Under the glass display case are models of ancient sailing ships; every detail, even the smallest, is displayed in them with one hundred percent identity. You can look at such a structure for a long time, and it seems that any moment it will come to life, sway on the waves, the sails will flutter, and sailors will run along the deck.
The museum has a hall dedicated to diving equipment, where you can see the very first diving suit.
The view is enchanting, and the salty, fresh smell seems to permeate everywhere, just like the smell itself. Don't miss the opportunity to fully enjoy this corner of the land and sit for a while in an open-air cafe on the roof of the building.
Nearby is another Maritime Museum, where you can visit a real minesweeper. Here you can touch, spin and check all the exhibits.
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Fat Margaret Tower (Tallinn, Estonia) - expositions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.
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To the right of the Sea Gate, the main entrance from the port beyond the city wall of Tallinn, rises an elegant, slender turret, and to the left is a huge, heavy, frightening-looking structure that clearly does not harmonize with it. This is a gun tower, built according to the rules of fortification of the 16th century, three centuries later than the fortress itself, when the defense of the port waters required the use of heavy long-range artillery. At first she was called simply New and only over time, under the influence of urban tales, she was renamed Fat Margarita.
Legends and witchcraft
Guides always tell tourists about the great love between fisherman Margarita and craftsman Herman. A certain evil sorceress did not like their bright feeling and she turned the guy into the tallest tower of the Toompea castle - Long Herman, and his beloved became Fat Margarita.
But there is another version - the girl did not meet the beauty standards of that time, she was too thin. And the witch conjured that all she had to do was circle around any local plump woman to take away all her corpulence. But Margarita got carried away and became a huge tower. Nowadays, many girls believe that if they walk around her in a circle, the witchcraft will work again and they will lose weight.
New life for an old tower
The ancient structure still looks very menacing today. The gray walls, 6 m thick, are cut through with loopholes, and cast iron and bronze cannons of impressive size and weight are laid out on the lawn next to them. Inside there is an exhibition of the Estonian Maritime Museum, an interesting collection of nautical maps, ancient navigational instruments, ship models, photographs and documents telling about the long and complex history of mankind’s exploration of maritime affairs.
(Paks Margareeta) with 155 loopholes, 20 meters high and 25 meters in diameter, was built in 1510 - 1529 by the Westphalian master Gert Koning for the purpose of protection Great Sea Gate, originally connecting the port of Tallinn with Toompea Hill along the line of modern Pikk Street, which were built in 1265 by order of the Danish Queen Margaret, the then ruler of Tallinn.
Tower wall thickness Fat Margarita is almost five meters, which at the time of construction guaranteed protection from even the most massive artillery cannonballs. Even today the tower complex Fat Margarita And Great Sea Gate makes a serious impression - one can imagine the respect he inspired in friends and foes four hundred years ago.
Protecting the entrance to the harbor and city, the tower Fat Margarita protected Tallinn's income from maritime trade. The ensemble of the tower and the Great Sea Gate is decorated with a small coat of arms of the city of Tallinn carved in stone, located between two embrasures above the Great Sea Gate. The heraldic emblem depicts a battle shield with a cross, topped with a knight's helmet, supported by two griffins.
Tallinn residents jokingly say that the tower Fat Margarita is the wife Long Herman. The comedy of the comparison emphasizes the striking discrepancy between the sizes of the “spouses” - height Long Herman is almost 46 meters, but the diameter is much more modest than that of the “wife” - some 9.5 meters. “Relatives” have been identified at different ends of Old Tallinn: Long Herman on Toompea hill in the Upper Town, and the tower Fat Margarita- in the very north of the Lower City, near the sea harbor.
Tower "Fat Margaret" - warehouse, prison, museum
However, weapons progress moved inexorably forward, and soon the huge tower ceased to be of fortification value. In almost all European cities, disused fortress towers could not be used other than as warehouses, prisons and, later, museums. Exactly the same fate befell the tower. Fat Margarita of the city of Tallinn: until 1917 it was a city penitentiary institution, and even acquired a special prison annex as such. During the days of the revolution it was in the tower Fat Margarita One of the most violent clashes took place in Tallinn, during which crowds of sailors, soldiers and workers destroyed the prison guards and opened the doors of the tower.
Maritime Museum in the Fat Margaret Tower
Today there are towers in the complex Fat Margarita And Great Sea Gate there is the Estonian Maritime Museum with an impressive collection of ancient weapons, maps and instruments, as well as a cafe with a good observation deck on the roof, from where you can admire the passenger ferries entering the Tallinn port.
Maritime Museum of Estonia (Eesti Meremuuseum, address Pikk , 70) - its exhibition includes various navigational instruments and instruments, maps, a collection of models of ancient ships, models of the main Baltic lighthouses, the steering wheel of an English steamship "Auk", sunk during the First World War and much more. In total, the museum stores about 70 thousand exhibits, but due to lack of space, only a small part of them is exhibited. IN Maritime Museum there is also a model of the infamous cargo-passenger ferry "Estonia", which sank on the night of 27–28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea between Stockholm and Tallinn, leaving 852 of the 989 passengers and crew on board dead or missing - the largest peacetime shipwreck in Europe .
