Estonian architecture. Frozen in stone: Soviet architecture in Estonia

Today there are few types of modern buildings in the city of Tartu, and for now we will finish the stories about it. There will be both evening shots taken on April 2nd and shots taken the next morning, April 3rd. Since the conditions were not too favorable for photography, there will be no special masterpieces under the cut, but it’s worth looking at the architecture. ;-)

I'll start the story with the scientific center with the unusual name Ahhaa, which you see in the photo above. Unfortunately, we were not inside the center, since there was still a little more than a month before its opening ... But I will quote here, with abbreviations, the text of one article telling about its miracles (from here):

Ahhaa Science Center started its activity on September 1, 1997 as a project of the University of Tartu. Since 2000, Ahhaa has worked in the premises of the Tartu Observatory, and since 2009 in the Lõunakeskus shopping center in Tartu and on Freedom Square in Tallinn.
For those who don't know what it is
Ahhaa's task is to popularize scientific discoveries and achievements, making information about them available to the widest possible audience: from young children to their great-grandparents. In the lobby, we were met by Nino Feshchina, marketing director, who was our guide, talking about what had already been done and what still had to be mounted, installed, adjusted, and the like.

2.

New sensations await visitors already in the lobby: just try to sit on a bench studded with massage balls of different sizes. In general, seating - flexible chaise longues that take the shape of the body, spinning stools, hammock sofas - is given special attention in the new Ahhaa. This is understandable, because after many hours of walking through the halls, the legs need rest.

But if in order, then after the lobby, the visitor gets to the cashier. During our visit, of course, it was not yet working, but we were told that there would be no tickets as such in Ahhaa: you would have to pass through the turnstile by placing your finger on a special scanner. Naturally, your fingerprint will be entered into the database when you pay for the entrance. This is done in many interactive museums around the world, for example, in the American Disney World. In the science shop, it will be possible to buy not banal souvenirs, but scientific and entertaining, which means useful ones. The restaurant-snack bar will also serve not hamburgers, but salads and freshly squeezed juices. And finally, exposure. American, German and Japanese adjusters took part in its installation.

3. From a distance it looks like something cosmic:

Sphere, tower and bike

Nino leads us to one of the spacious halls, in the center of which there is a huge silvery openwork ball. This is the Hoberman sphere, which can shrink and grow before our eyes. The ball will hang under the dome and surprise visitors with its spontaneous changes. In the meantime, engineers from the United States are finishing its installation: you need to be in time for the opening! Next to the ball is the Heege tower, nine meters high, on which everyone can easily lift themselves, which we tried to do. It's funny to feel like a child, especially when your own children do not see you: you can scream desperately with delight mixed with fear. This is exactly how adult aunts and uncles behaved, locked in a furiously spinning centrifuge, which is, as it were, on the mezzanine of this round hall.

Immediately, at a height of nine meters, flush with the Heege tower, there is a spectacular and completely safe attraction: a bicycle from which it is impossible to fall. On this bike, mounted on a cable with a counterweight in the form of a core weighing 200 kilograms, even those who do not dare to ride on asphalt can ride “over the abyss”. Right there, nearby, there is a mysterious elevator in the dungeon. Imagine: you enter a supposedly ordinary elevator. The walls of the cabin are immediately transformed into a 3D picture, and a voice begins to sound in the dynamics, telling about the science of geology. Suddenly there is a "short circuit", the elevator starts moving down to the center of the Earth, and you see how behind the walls the image of underground city communications in the section is replaced by a cut of the earth's crust, and so deeper and deeper, to the center of the Earth...

4.

Newton's apples in the window, chickens in the incubator, stars on the walls

In one of the vestibules, in a two-story window, a seven-meter construction is installed, in an associative form illustrating the Newtonian law of universal gravitation. Multi-colored balls (than not Newton's apple!) are lifted up by a motor, and from there they themselves go down, setting in motion various intricate designs. “This exhibit came from Germany,” says Nino Feshchina. “When it was installed, a crowd gathered on the street, the installation process itself was so interesting!”

In the new Ahhaa house during our tour, many rooms were still empty: chemical laboratories, halls where popular science films will be shown and cheerful performances of the troupe of special theaters, physical and chemical, will be played. The mirror maze was already ready, in which we gladly got lost, bumping into each other and into mirrors. In a separate room there is a huge Water World, which was also purchased in Germany. The water gurgled gently, and we, forgetting about voice recorders and cameras, began to press buttons and levers, launching and forcing stiff jets to freeze in place.

In the same room, an ant house should be installed - a transparent container, looking into which, you can observe the complex and eventful life of ants. And also a real ... incubator will be arranged here. Watching the development of a chick embryo, right up to the moment when the chick hatches into the world, will certainly be very popular with visitors.

5. Interesting wall decoration - simple and effective:

Traveling exhibitions will be held in the same hall. So, at the end of May, a unique exhibition called Robot Zoo is expected to arrive. Created in the USA with anatomical and even physiological precision, moving mechanical fly, platypus, giraffe, locust and many other creatures, up to the dinosaur, will come to us from Israel - after a triumphant journey around the world. The unique exhibition will last for about six months, Nino told us.

The most expensive in execution and yet another spectacular exhibit of the new Ahhaa is an extraordinary planetarium. Finding ourselves in a small hall with excellent acoustics, we could imagine how, after the opening, the spectators who got here would find themselves in the center of the starry sky, where they could see the smallest and most distant stars, while listening to beautiful music, ordering it to their taste ... Of course , this is only an imitation, but what an accurate one! No wonder the author of the starry sky projector, an engineer from Japan, Ohira Takayuki, received a diploma from the Guinness Book of Records for this work. He personally came to the installation of equipment and supervised the work, promising to be in time for the opening. But on the roof of the building will be equipped with a real mini-observatory.

6. Visor with a balcony solved in an original way:

May 7 - Day X
At the end of our tour, marketing director Nino Feshchina said: “The team hopes that all the exhibits will have time to prepare for the opening. We expect a thousand visitors a day, and in a year we want 100,000 people to visit the new Ahhaa.” The interactive center will employ twenty specially trained instructor guides who are ready to communicate with visitors, in addition to Estonian and Russian, also in Finnish, English, Latvian, and German. All exhibits endowed with a voice also “speak” at least in Russian, Estonian and English.
The new Ahhaa house opened on May 7 at 9 pm and worked non-stop for the first three days.

After the opening of the center, we contacted Nino Feshchina, and she said that the opening went well, the planetarium is a huge success, the time to visit it is booked in advance. Everything works, turns and turns as it should. The round-the-clock mode of operation paid off, because many people simply did not want to leave. By the morning of May 8, the center was visited by 888 people

7. View of the center from the snail tower:

8-9. "Tower-snail", in Estonian - Tigutorn, in the evening and in the morning of the next day:

10-11. Let's look at the individual details of the tower:

12-13. Types of the garage part of the complex:

14. Entrances to the tower:

15. Typically, architects accentuate the entrance with a portal or canopy. Here the main focus is color:

16. And this is what it looked like at night:

17. The tower in the city is visible from afar:

18. An unforgettable sight. When I first saw the tower, I was surprised by this ziggurat:

19. Another view from afar:

20. Opposite the snail tower, another center gleamed with its sheathing - trading or not, I don’t know:

21. Approaching him:

22. And I look back at the tower from there. The photo on the right was taken from the side of the bus station:

23. I have long dreamed of making such a frame with a lighted end:

Now let's leave the tower and move on to other buildings in Tartu.

Market Bridge (Turusild)
The pedestrian cable-stayed bridge was built in 2003. The bridge is only for pedestrians, cyclists and small mopeds. It connects the Annelinn district and the city market. The bridge has a length of 251.5 meters and 7 pairs of cables. Approximate height from the water surface is 7.5 meters.
Turusild is the best building of 2003 in Tartu, which received the title of event of the year.
http://www.dorpat.ru/index/rynochnyj_most_turusild/0-16

24. Cable-stayed bridge late at night:

25. And in the morning:

26. Arch Bridge (Kaarsild)
Where the famous Stone Bridge connected the banks of the Emajõgi River for more than a century and a half, in 1959 an arch bridge for pedestrians was built, the reinforced concrete arches of which rest on the foundation of the destroyed Stone Bridge.
http://www.dorpat.ru/index/arochnyj_most_kaarsild/0-15

27. And one of the most beautiful new bridges in Tartu:

Freedom Bridge (Vabadussild)
During the work on opening the pits during the construction of the Vabaduse bridge over the river. Emajõgi in the city of Tartu, interesting archaeological finds dating back to the 19th century (axes, glass bottles, nails, preserved from a wooden bridge that previously existed on this site) were discovered. Also, several German mines were found here, preserved in the ground since the Second World War.

In 2006 JSC "Transmost", having won the "ideological" competition for the design of the bridge in Tartu, developed the working documentation for it and in 2007 the Estonian branch of the company "Tilts" started its construction. OJSC "Transmost" carried out architectural supervision of the construction.

On 30.07.2009 the grand opening of the new car-pedestrian bridge across the Emajõgi River took place in Tartu. The Freedom Bridge, the construction of which lasted more than two years, is thrown across the river and connects Lai and Vene streets. The name of the new bridge was proposed by the city's cultural commission and has already been used in city hall documents. The bridge is equipped with variable illumination. The cost of the bridge, 90 meters long and 18.75 meters wide, was 161,045,951 crowns.

The plaque on the bridge reads:
"Freedom Bridge"
The bridge was built on July 30, 2009
Customer - Tartu City Government
Designer - OJSC "Trans-Most"
"St. Petersburg"
Builder - SIA Tilts „Riia”

Until 1561, Estonia was part of the possessions of the Livonian Order, and after its liquidation, it came under the rule of Sweden, Denmark and Poland. Since 1629, it was all under the rule of Sweden, and at the beginning of the 18th century. was annexed to Russia. All this, as well as the international trade relations of Estonia, determined the connection of its architecture with the architecture of other countries during the 16th - 1st half of the 19th century. The internal factors that influenced the development of Estonian architecture were the development of crafts and trade and the emergence in the 16th century. capitalist relations that contributed to the rise of the burghers, and the resulting changes in the worldview (affecting the church reformation and the spread of Lutheranism). The wars of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, which were also fought on the territory of Estonia, hindered the development of architecture and limited construction, and at the same time caused the construction of fortifications.

So, in 1532-1558. in Tallinn, to the south and northwest of the old fortress wall, new fortifications with bastions were erected, the same bastion appeared in front of the Viru Gate, and a new tower for artillery appeared in front of the Karja Gate. In Narva at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. new bastions were added to the old fortress wall.

Few residential buildings were built at this time; the old ones were rebuilt more, which also applies to country estates. Built at the end of the 16th century. Orzhechovsky's house in Tartu, known from a drawing of the 17th century, had a facade of three parts, each of which ended with its own gable with volutes in the spirit of the Dutch-German Renaissance. The public buildings of Tallinn in the 16th century were close to these forms. - the now non-existent building of the city scales (1554) with a high roof, double windows and medallions between them and the so-called State Hall, attached in 1590 to the western wall of the front part of the Vyshgorod Castle.

The most valuable architectural monument of the Renaissance in Estonia is the facade of the Tallinn House of the Blackheads (Fig. 1), built in 1597 by the Tallinn master A. Passer (who was also a builder of fortresses and a sculptor who in 1595 completed the tomb monument of P. Delagardie in Tallinn cathedral). The narrow symmetrical facade of the House of the Blackheads, crowned with a high tong with volutes, is dissected by horizontal belts and decorated with a portal and reliefs: Christ and the allegories of Justice and Peace in the tong, the emblem of the Blackheads above the portal, the emblems of the most important Hanseatic cities in the interstorey belt, the heads of King Sigismund and Queen Una in gables of the lower windows and jumping Blackheads in armor on the slabs in the piers of the upper floor. Few churches were built at this time. St. John's Church in Narva (1641-1651, master Z. Hoffman the Younger), extremely simple from the outside, hall, three-aisled, had round pillars tapering upwards on high pedestals.

From the 2nd half of the 17th century. in connection with a calmer historical situation, construction activity is revived and baroque forms become more noticeable in architecture, at first restrained, akin to northern Germany and the Netherlands that influenced it.

In some cities, new development followed a regular plan, as in the more than doubled size of Pärnu with a new central square in front of the old Riga Gate and a main street parallel to the river. During the reconstruction of Narva after the fire of 1659, new buildings, which gave the city greater integrity, were carried out along the old streets. In 1686, according to the project of the prominent Swedish military engineer E. Dalberg, the construction of new Narva fortifications in the form of a belt with six bastions was started, which were not completed by 1704, when the city was taken by the Russians. The fortifications of Tallinn, begun in 1627, and the fortifications of Tartu also remained unfinished. In Pärnu, from the belt of seven bastions, the monumental Tallinn Gates built according to the project of Dahlberg have been preserved. In Kuressaare, which received city rights in 1563, all four bastions have survived to this day.

Housing construction of the XVI century. best represented by the buildings of Narva, which was being rebuilt after the fire of 1659. The houses were two-storeyed with smooth walls, carved stone portals in the Dutch style and a bay window-turret in the middle of the facade, on the corner or on both corners, as can be seen in the house of Burgomaster Schwarz, built in 1686 by master Y. Teifel (Fig. 2). In Pärnu, houses still had old-fashioned high tongs, but their details were sometimes baroque. The most monumental was the Taube house in Tartu (1688), known from the drawing of that time and having a wider facade, dissected by pilasters, and a monumental staircase in front of the entrance.

Lush portals and external staircases were also characteristic of public buildings of that time - like the town hall in Narva, built by J. Teifel in the 1670s, with rarely spaced pilasters of the facade, a slender turret of 1727 and sculptural decorations of the portal by the Flemish master G. Millich ( Fig. 3). The stock exchange in this city, completed in 1704 according to the project of the architect and sculptor I. G. Heroldt, is close to it in form. in Pärnu. in 1669-1688 according to the project of the Swedish architect N. Tessin the Elder, the former order castle was rebuilt for the needs of the university. The new façade, known only from drawings, was distinguished by the austerity and laconicism characteristic of this architect. In Kuressaare, in 1663 a building for the city scales was built, and in 1670 a town hall with a modest baroque portal was built.

The restrained nature of architecture, close to other countries of Northern Europe, was by the beginning of the 18th century. traditional for Estonia, why its accession to Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. did not cause a sharp change in its development, although the construction of government buildings, led from St. Petersburg, and the construction of separate buildings in some Estonian cities according to the projects of St. Petersburg and Moscow architects left their mark. But still, most of the Estonian buildings of the 1710s-1770s followed the old traditions, combining them with some rococo elements.

Among the few residential buildings of this time, the house at 15 Uus Street in Tallinn is typical (1751, fig. 4). In it, against the background of smooth walls, cut through by rather large windows, with small bindings, an elegant portal in the forms of rococo stands out. But at this time, primitive wooden houses were built more often in the suburbs. Palace and manor construction was more intensive. A special place is occupied by the palace in Kadriorg in Tallinn, built in 1718-1725. Petersburg architects N. Michetti and M. Zemtsov (Fig. 5). The decoration of its facades has a somewhat flat character, characteristic of the St. Petersburg architecture of the time of Peter the Great, but the decoration of the main hall with two monumental fireplaces is much richer and akin in some respects to northern Italian baroque.

But in other palaces built in estates, one can see more similarities with examples of the German late Baroque, especially in their interiors. This applies to manor houses in the Saar with an interesting baroque hall and in Sagadi, built in 1750 by the master Wall and having an elegant decoration of the hall. In 1753 a house was built in the Palmse manor, and in 1755 in the Hiiu-Suuremoisa manor. In the 1760s-1770s, the old order castle in Põltsamaa was rebuilt (Fig. 6), the interiors of which were decorated in rococo forms in 1772-1774. under the guidance of the Berlin master I. M. Graff, who also worked in Latvia, where he decorated the interiors of the Biron palaces in Jelgava and Rundale, built by Rastrelli.

Links with the late German baroque are also visible in the building of the provincial government in Tallinn, completed in 1773 according to the project of J. Schulz, but the interior of the hall of this building was already made in the spirit of early classicism. Only the Orthodox Catherine's Church in Pärnu is an example of late Russian baroque (1768, Moscow architect V. Yakovlev). The Lutheran Elizabethan Church in the same city (1747), built by the Riga masters I. X. Guterbock and I. X. Vulbern, is very modest, but has an interesting portal. In Tallinn, in 1779, according to the project of I. Geist, the baroque top of the bell tower of the Transfiguration Church was built and in the same years the baroque Manteuffel chapel and a number of more modest chapels in the Kopli cemetery were built in the Muigu cemetery.

Relations with Russian architecture became more noticeable in the years 1770-1840 - at the time of classicism, although ties with German architecture were not interrupted. For Estonia, this time was a time of economic growth, the expansion of foreign trade, the revival of construction and the flourishing of architecture, which corresponded to the flourishing that the architecture of the entire Russian Empire was experiencing at that time.

The large-scale urban redevelopment carried out by the Russian government also affected Estonia, being especially noticeable in cities that suffered from fires (Tartu, 1775). According to the regular plan, the construction of the new county town of Võru was also carried out. In housing construction, new features were most pronounced in facades, while the layout of houses often followed old traditions. In some places, the traditional composition of facades with high tongs decorated with volutes was also used. Sometimes the facades were divided by pilasters in the upper floors; the lower floor was rusticated, and the middle part of the building was crowned with a pediment or attic. Such is the house at Nyukogudeväljak 8 in Tartu, where echoes of the Baroque are still visible in the design of the window casings (Fig. 7).

Most often, the facades of residential buildings did not have pilasters, but their rather rich decoration consisted of window frames, friezes and stucco garlands, rosettes and medallions. In general, these facades are close to the architecture of houses in North German cities, the natives of which were many craftsmen who were then working in Estonia. Such are the Tallinn houses at 10 Uus Street (1791), at 19 Pikk Street (Fig. 8), at 2 Raamatukogu Street with rich decoration of the facade, at 2 Kohtu Street (1798), some houses in Kuressaare, Pärnu, Võru , Haapsalu and others.

Manor houses of this time usually have three risalits, the middle, wider one is sometimes crowned with a pediment. Facades are often articulated with pilasters, but porticos are still rare. Examples of manors of this time are the manor in Pad (architect J. B. Wallen Delamotte), which has not survived, the manors in Saue, Eesmäe, Ryagavere, Roosna-Alliku-Mydriku, etc. built in 1784 according to the project of I. Moor, very strict in architecture and similar to a manor house with its front yard and outbuildings, as well as the town hall in Tartu (1789, architect I. X. Walter, fig. 9) with a modest decoration of the facade and a turret on the ridge of the roof. Numerous postal stations and taverns were built in the same years. Of the churches of that time, the most interesting are the Lutheran church in Valga, which began construction in 1787 according to the design of the Riga architect K. Haberland, but was completed only in 1816, and the church in Võru (1793, fig. 10). Finally, the Stone Bridge in Tartu should be noted, completed in 1783 (possibly according to the design of the French engineer Perrone) with the structure of the middle part, reminiscent of a triumphal arch.

The period of late classicism (1800-1840) was a time of even greater revival of construction in Estonia. At that time, work was underway to improve the sanitary improvement of cities and streamline their development, in which a positive role was played by the order of 1809 on the use of albums of “exemplary facades” of residential buildings developed in St. Petersburg. Housing construction also expanded, especially in Tartu, where the foundation of the university in 1802 contributed to the growth of the city.

The leading architects were I. V. Krause, I. A. Krahnhals the Elder and G. V. Geist. The facades of residential buildings of this time were strict, even solemn. They were decorated only with pilasters with pediments in the center and ornamented panels between the windows of the first and second floors. Such are the house at 16 Nyukogudeväljak Street (architect I.V. Krause) and the houses that have not been preserved on Kalura, Jaama, Aleksandri and other streets. The mansion at 8 Kohtu Street in Tallinn is even more monumental thanks to its six-columned Ionic portico (1811-1814 architect K. I. Janikhen).

Among the public buildings of that time, the main building of the University of Tartu (1804-1809, architect I.V. Krause, Fig. 11) with rustication of the lower floor, a six-columned Tuscan portico and an Ionic colonnade of the assembly hall and built by the same architect in 1804- 1805 rotunda of the university anatomical theater (wing, 1825-1827). A prominent role in the appearance of Tartu was played by the shopping arcade, completed in 1821 (Fig. 12). Their colonnade closed one of the sides of a rectangular square with the same type of facades of the buildings surrounding it and a monument to Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly by V. I. Demuth-Malinovsky in the center. In the 1st half of the XIX century. continued to build postal stations and taverns (Fig. 13). Smooth walls, simplified colonnades and high roofs gave the appearance of these buildings a peculiar rural character.

Manor houses of that time, in their planning and decoration of facades and interiors, approached palaces. Porticos have now become almost obligatory for new houses and are often attached to old ones, and the rotunda has become a common rotunda on courtyard facades. The number of rooms has increased. There were rooms for receiving guests and games, libraries, art galleries, winter gardens, etc. The Great Hall was decorated with an internal colonnade, choirs for musicians and a gallery for the orchestra. Of the Estonian manor houses of this period, the most interesting are the house with a rotunda in Khireda (circa 1812, Fig. 14), the house in Riisiper with a beautiful hall (1821), the houses in Saku (circa 1820), Raiküla, Miao, etc.

Among the churches of the early XIX century. interesting is the Orthodox St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn - cubic with a dome and two bell towers and a portico of the western facade (Fig. 15). Its design was made by the St. Petersburg architect L. Ruska in 1807, but, apparently, was changed by the city architect Shatten, who built the church in 1822-1827.

The period of classicism in Estonia was very fruitful and left a large number of artistically valuable buildings, which, along with the Gothic ones, give both cities and rural areas of the country a unique look.

Chapter "Estonian architecture of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries" section "Europe" from the book "The General History of Architecture. Volume VII. Western Europe and Latin America. XVII - the first half of the XIX centuries. edited by A.V. Bunina (responsible editor), A.I. Kaplun, P.N. Maksimov.

The eastern part of Estonia, directly adjacent to the territory of Russia, has felt the influence of the Soviet era the most and, accordingly, the most replete with buildings of that period. But even here, not to mention other areas of Estonia, within the framework of one of the dominant stylistic architectural trends of the Soviet era, called conceptualism, the buildings being built according to state orders acquired a deliberate pseudo-European flavor.

This happened due to the proximity of the republic to Finland, whose original culture inspired Soviet architects to some imitation.

One of the significant figures in the then architectural firmament was Toomas Rein, who designed most of the most interesting buildings and complexes in the 70s and 80s.

An example of residential buildings of his authorship is an unusual complex in the city of Pärnu, completed by the mid-80s.

The current state of many buildings of that time leaves much to be desired. But this residential complex, sometimes referred to as "Sun Houses", appears in the form of a model in the Pärnu Architectural Museum.

Layout of "Solar Houses"

True, the conceived and implemented differ quite a lot, but that's what it is and a harsh reality.

Another eminent Estonian architect was Valve Pormeister. Her creative career has been long and productive, designing buildings both during the Estonian SSR and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of her original works, built a little earlier than those mentioned above, in the mid-60s, is located in the north-eastern part of Tallinn, in the Pirita area.

This is the building of the Tulyak cafe, which was very popular in previous years. The cafe remained there later, and has now reopened after reconstruction, raising its status to a restaurant. The building was conceived as part of an architectural complex, which included, in addition to it, the Flower Pavilion, and the whole complex harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape with a well-groomed lawn. Now the whole landscape has changed a lot, and in the modern outlines of the restaurant one can hardly see the former work of the legendary architect.

This is how the Tulyak cafe looked like when it was still famous, but just a cafe.

Cafe Tulyak

And this is what the restaurant of the same name looks like now.

Once you start talking about Tallinn, it's hard to stop. How not to mention, for example, the Singing Field, where the largest musical events are held annually, and every five years - the All-Estonian Song Festival!

The natural slope of the area is the best suited for a huge open-air auditorium that can accommodate more than a hundred thousand spectators at once.

The slope is crowned by a huge shell of the Singing Stage - a remarkable building in its constructive solution, designed by the Estonian architect Alar Kotli and erected by 1960, when the XV General Song Festival was held.

Or how to ignore the tallest building in all of Estonia - the Tallinn TV Tower, whose height reaches three hundred and fourteen meters. The project of the TV tower was created by architects David Basiladze and Yuri Sinis.

Most of its height is a reinforced concrete structure, above which rises a 124-meter metal pole-mast.

Only service personnel have access to it, in this case almost equivalent to celestials, and “mere mortals” are content with an observation platform at a height of one hundred and ninety meters, where a panoramic restaurant is equipped and where those wishing through twenty-two floors are lifted by a high-speed elevator.

However, for extreme sports there is also a staircase with more than a thousand steps.

It took five whole years to build the TV tower, it took a lot of engineering and technical innovations, and the opening of the TV tower took place right in time for the sailing regatta, which was held in Tallinn and was part of the 80 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

By the same significant date, that is, by the Moscow Olympics, another interesting object appeared in Tallinn, which received the loud name "Lenin Palace of Culture and Sports."

Among the people, the name quickly transformed into the "City Hall" or simply "Gorhall", as it is called now.

An outstanding building, built from local rocks, is located on the shore of the bay in full accordance with the requirements of conceptualism, that is, complementing and using the possibilities of the surrounding landscape to the maximum. Inside were located, among other things, a large skating rink and a concert hall.

The latter, by the way, still functions today, but only occasionally, and a few tenants do not save the situation of the decaying giant. But the local youth loves to gather at the Gorhall in the summer and, despite the piercing Baltic winds, enjoy the beautiful views that open up.

The project of the Palace of Culture and Sports was created by a whole team of authors, the main architects were Raine Karp, Riina Altmäe and Ülo Sirp. In 1984, they and other members of the group received the USSR State Prize.

If we turn to earlier times, more precisely to the 1950s, when Soviet neoclassicism was the predominant architectural style, then we must definitely mention the oldest cinema in Tallinn, Druzhba, which began its work in 1955. The majestic building with columns immediately set the visitors in the right mood.

This state of affairs persists even now, when the cinema, which is still functioning, having replaced the Russian name with the Estonian one, is already called Sõprus and the films shown on the screens of its two cinema halls are completely different.

Nevertheless, it retains the status of theater rather than cinema: fans of popcorn and unpretentious blockbusters do not belong here, the audience gathering in the cinema appreciates intellectual films like retrospectives of Fellini, Tarkovsky, Pasolini, Aki Kaurismäki and other luminaries of cinematographic art like Kim Kee Duka.

By the way, the decor of the building, at least the exterior, looks surprisingly untouched, although the cinema, which has undergone reconstruction, gives the impression of a well-groomed and modern one.

The interior decoration and even the layout have changed quite a lot.

The design of the cinema building was developed by a group of architects, of whom Friedrich Wendach made the largest contribution. Today this building is recognized as an architectural monument.

In general, one can talk about the Soviet architectural heritage in Estonia for a long time. There are many interesting buildings in Tallinn and other cities. We can also recall the building of the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR, now called the Academic Library of Tallinn University. She is practically the same age as the Singing Scene, only a few years younger.

(Architects: U. Telpus, P. Madalik)

But I would like to finish with something not so ordinary as residential buildings or cinemas. Can you imagine that a banal bus stop can embody the style of the era no worse than pompous stone giants? You can not? Then look!

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Contents 1 Beginning of the 20th century 1.1 Literature 1.2 Architecture ... Wikipedia

At the beginning of the 20th century, Art Nouveau became popular in Estonian architecture. An example of this style is the building of the Estonia Theater in Tallinn, the building of the Institute of Zoology and Geology of the University of Tartu, etc. Important events in Estonia The Estonian language has become ... ... Wikipedia

The proportion of Russian speakers among the entire population of Estonia (according to the 2000 census) The Russian language in Estonia is, according to the census ... Wikipedia

The proportion of Russians among the population of Estonia in 2010, according to the Estonian Department of Statistics Russians (Est. venelased) are the largest national minority in Estonia ... Wikipedia

The history of school education in Estonia begins with the first monastic and cathedral schools that appeared in the 13th-14th centuries. The first primer in Estonian was published in 1575. The oldest university in Estonia is the University of Tartu, ... ... Wikipedia

Estonia. It is located in the northwest of the European part of the USSR. The oldest buildings on the territory of Estonia, huts covered with turf or birch on a conical pole frame, date back to the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. In the 1st millennium before... Art Encyclopedia

Postage stamp of the USSR from the series "Capitals of the Union Republics" (1990), dedicated to Tallinn ... Wikipedia

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• Sergey Kvach. Graphics, painting, architecture, design, Natalya Kvach. Sergei Kvach was born on May 25, 1956 in the town of Uren, Gorky Region. In 1975 he graduated from an art school and in 1980 from the Institute of Architecture and Construction in Nizhny Novgorod (the former city of…

I. Solomykova

The transition to feudalism among the Estonian tribes began in the 10th-11th centuries. During this period, there was a gradual formation of a class of feudal lords, crafts and trade developed; on the basis of old settlements, the medieval cities of Lindanise (Tallinn), Tartu, and others were born. Conditions were formed for the formation of a feudal state. Further independent development of Estonia was interrupted in the first half of the 13th century. the invasion of the southern part of Estonia by the German crusader knights and the northern part by the Danes who enslaved the country. Folk culture was severely persecuted and its development was hindered.

The conquest of Estonia by the German feudal lords determined the peculiar nature of the further feudalization of the country. The ruling class of feudal landowners, the privileged elite of the trading and craft cities and representatives of the church were German in origin and language, in cultural traditions. Therefore, anti-feudal movements were always closely intertwined with the national liberation struggle.

The artistic culture of the Estonian people, however, continued to develop even in difficult historical conditions. It was directly embodied in folk art - weaving, jewelry craftsmanship, ornaments that adorned household utensils, in works of peasant architecture.

However, one cannot reduce all medieval Estonian art only to the traditions of folk applied art and exclude architecture and monumental art from it. During the construction of castles and fortresses, cathedrals and town halls, forced labor of Estonians who mastered the art of stone processing was used. Of no less importance is the fact that these structures are generated by the social relations that have developed in Estonia, historically characteristic of its destinies. Although at their origin such buildings, especially castles, were perceived as symbols of hated foreign domination, architectural monuments have become part of the environment in which Estonians lived and live and which has been participating in the formation of their aesthetic tastes and ideas about the beauty of their native land for many centuries.

In artistic and stylistic terms, the medieval art of Estonia was part of that large family of cultures of Western, Central and Northern Europe, the development of which proceeded in Romano-Gothic forms. Of particular importance was the close connection of Tallinn and other cities of Estonia with the Hanseatic League. The formation of medieval art was influenced by the architecture of Rhine-Westphalia and the island of Gotland; also affected by contact with the highly developed culture of close neighbors - Pskov and Novgorod.

In southern Estonia, in particular in its largest city, Tartu, due to the lack of high-quality building stone with good clays, they built mainly from brick - a material characteristic of northeastern Germany and Latvia. In terms of its construction and stylistic features, South Estonian architecture is closely related to the art of the latter. In northern Estonia, in particular the main city of Estonia - Tallinn, as well as in Narva, local gray stone - flagstone was used for construction.

In northern Estonia, links with the architecture of the Hanseatic cities are especially noticeable. Simple and expressive architectural forms, a certain asceticism in the use of architectural decoration are typical of medieval North Estonian architecture, which had a severe charm.

The architecture of northern Estonia, especially Tallinn, forms a kind of school that clearly expresses the original features of medieval Estonian architecture.

Built in the middle of the 13th century. temples and castles were stylistically still associated with the traditions of Romanesque art. Only during the 14th century. in Estonia, its own version of Gothic architecture was finally formed.

Church architecture of Estonia in the 13th century. lapidary simplicity of construction was inherent (one- and two-nave, sometimes without a transept, sometimes without a rounding of the altar wall, etc.) and a severe fortress character.

An example of a fortified church, which could, if necessary, turn into a small fortress, is the one-nave church in the town of Valjala on the island of Sarema (circa 1260), built of limestone. The thick walls, reinforced later by massive buttresses, were cut through by a few narrow windows arranged in pairs. After the Estonian uprising in 1261, the lower part of the windows was blocked, and a wooden gallery was built inside the church in case of defense. A characteristic feature of this church is the presence, along with the Romanesque foundation (massive wall planes, semicircular arches), elements of a new, Gothic style (vaults on thin ribs, etc.).

From the middle of the 13th century architecture was of great use in cities, which began to grow and strengthen. So, in Tallinn, Toomkirik (Cathedral Church, 13th century) was erected on Toompea (Vyshgorod) and the Church of Niguliste (St. Nicholas) in the Lower Town (beginning of the 14th century) - three-nave basilica churches without a transept. In the 14-15 centuries. they were radically rebuilt in the Gothic spirit, and we cannot judge their original appearance.

In the 13th-14th centuries. fortified monasteries were built (for example, in Padis, in Kyarkne, in Tallinn - the Dominican monastery of St. Catherine, which burned down at the beginning of the 16th century, and the Cistercian monastery of St. Michael).

Fortresses-castles were erected on the ruins of the former settlements of the Estonians. The ruins of numerous castles have survived On the territory of Estonia and Latvia in the Middle Ages, there were more than 400 fortresses-castles.); Initially, the most common types of castle-fortresses were donjons. Some donjons were built outside the settlements, at the most important strategic points. Such, in particular, was the donjon in Paide (13th century) - an octahedral monumental thirty-meter tower. The donjon had six floors, of which the lower three were covered with vaults. The second floor was adapted for housing, the top three served for military purposes.

During the period of feudal fragmentation, the territory of Estonia was divided between the bishops and the Livonian Order.

In the 14th century, when anti-feudal peasant uprisings became more frequent, including the famous uprising on St. George's Night (1343), large order-type castles or so-called "convent houses" were built especially intensively.

Typical fortified castles in Viljandi, Rakvere, Tallinn, Narva, episcopal castles in Kuressaare and Haapsalu. The Order's castle in Viljandi (now ruins) was larger than all contemporary castles in the Baltics. It represented a square with a side of 55 m in plan. The ensemble of the building included a church, a large common refectory for the knights, common bedrooms - dormitories and separate rooms for noble members of the order. The castle stood on a high hill with a steep slope to the lake and was surrounded by four belts of powerful stone fortress walls. The alternation of walls, natural ravines and ditches made the castle impregnable. One can imagine that the bulk of the castle and the high walls, built of boulders and bricks, hanging over the lake and looming in the sky, made a really formidable impression.

In the architecture of order convent houses from the 14th century. features of Gothic art began to appear. However, the Gothic art of medieval Estonia reached its highest development in the cities.

Some Estonian cities that reached in the 14th century. a high level of economic development, acquired a certain independence in relation to the power of the order and became, as everywhere in Europe, the centers of the most progressive forms of culture and art in the Middle Ages.

Estonian Gothic is characterized by a severe serf character, simplicity of plans, the rare use of flying buttresses, the preservation of the role of the wall, and the weak development of the frame system characteristic of Western Europe.

The brick church of Jaani (John) in Tartu, built in the 14th century, gives an excellent idea of ​​South Estonian Gothic. A distinctive feature of its architecture is the horizontal articulation of the planes of the facade and walls with the help of various friezes, including green glazed tiles. In the western part there was a heavy square tower, decorated with friezes and false windows, with a richly profiled portal, gravitating towards Romanesque forms, completed with a wilperg.

The unique character of this monument of medieval Estonian architecture is associated with its terracotta sculptural decorations. Terracotta figurines, human heads and sculptural groups are located both inside and outside the building. These diverse, non-repeating sculptural images of burghers, knights, artisans are interpreted very schematically and stylized, but nevertheless, in many of them, a realistic perception of a person is noticeable.

In the 15th century in Tartu, on the basis of a church built back in the 13th century, a monumental three-nave basilica cathedral church of Peter and Paul was erected. This is the only church building in Estonia whose western façade was flanked by two high quadrangular towers facing west. The church burned down in the 17th century, only a wall box with parts of the towers survived.

In general, the South Estonian "brick Gothic" compared to the northern one is characterized by a relative lightness of proportions and dissection of structures, richness of decor, less severity and greater picturesqueness, and a festive overall impression.

A peculiar monument of early Estonian Gothic is the church in Karja on the island of Sarema (1330-1340). Its peculiarity is the sculptural decor made of local Sarem marble. One of the pylons of the entrance arch depicts St. Nicholas in episcopal vestments. From a niche, decorated in the form of a window of a small tower, he gives alms to women. Among the sculptures there are groups that are attractive for their naive vitality, for example, the figure of St. Nicholas, depicted as a Sarem fisherman, or the image of gossips, one of which lacks devils. The statues of this church are of particular interest, since sculptures associated with architectural decoration have almost not survived in Estonia. Of the few surviving monuments, one should also mention the sculptural group of Estonian peasants on the console of the church in Paide.

Apparently, some sculptural decorations, especially in provincial churches, were made by masters - Estonians by origin. They are characterized by the spirit of coarse folk humor and an interest in depicting peasant Estonians.

The most striking and complete achievement of Estonian Gothic as a whole was revealed in the architecture and art of Tallinn. Early Gothic buildings include the two-aisled Pühavaimu (Holy Spirit) Church, built in the 14th century, a squat rectangular building with sparsely spaced high lancet windows and peculiar stepped slopes of pediments, which preserves the stern serf spirit of early medieval Estonian art.

The architectural appearance of medieval Tallinn in general terms took shape in the second half of the 15th century. The city was sharply divided into two parts: Vyshgorod (Toompea), located on a high rocky plateau, and the Lower City, lying between Vyshgorod and the sea harbor. Vyshgorod was the center of knightly-church Estonia. Surrounded by high walls, located in a valley near the sea, the Lower City was inhabited by merchants, numerous artisans and working people. He opposed Vyshgorod as the center of burgher culture.

Numerous churches of the 13th-15th centuries, the order castle, the old city hall of the 14th-15th centuries have survived from the medieval era. (in which the Tallinn City Council is currently located), fortress towers and part of the city walls, stone residential houses of wealthy burghers built in the 15th-16th centuries, and buildings of city guilds. Thus, old Tallinn with its numerous monuments of antiquity, narrow winding streets visually recreates the appearance of the city of the mature Middle Ages. In terms of safety, in terms of amazing integrity of the impression, the Gothic Tallinn ensemble is the only one in the USSR.

On a high rocky hill, steeply plunging towards the sea, rises the gloomy castle of the Livonian Order, founded by the Danes as early as the 13th century, rebuilt and expanded by the order in the 14th century. The deaf array of its mighty walls was only occasionally interrupted by several small windows-loopholes. The castle was flanked at the corners by towers; the largest and highest of them - Long German - has survived to this day. This eight-storey cylindrical tower with rare narrow windows dominates the area and is visible for many kilometers.

From the west and east, the stern silhouette of Vyshgorod stood out in contrast to the Lower City. The high and strong city walls, made of gray limestone, were crowned with numerous towers. An idea of ​​the square towers of the city wall (14th century) is given by the tower gates leading from the Lower City to a gentle ascent to Vyshgorod, called the Long Descent (Pikkyalg). The burghers prudently walled themselves off from Vyshgorod, with which they had to wage a constant struggle for their city liberties and privileges.

The surviving part of the walls with towers (there were 28 of them by the beginning of the 15th century) belongs to the 14th-15th centuries. Often located round towers topped with conical tents reproduce the type characteristic of medieval fortifications in Western Europe. Behind the city towers, like sentries guarding the city, crowded stone houses with steep gable roofs. Above them rose the spire of the mighty tower of the church of Niguliste and the needle-like turrets of the Church of the Holy Spirit and the town hall; in the side of the city facing the sea - a slender and powerful tower of the Church of Oleviste (rebuilt in the 15th - early 16th century), crowned with a tent-spire soaring rapidly upwards. The church and especially its tower (about 120 m high) dominated the city and were visible far from the sea. The ensemble of the Lower City, with its forest of slender towers, crowded peaked roofs, rich burgher houses, and spiers, expressively opposed the formidable severity of the Vyshgorod ensemble.

Estonian Gothic of its heyday is most vividly embodied in the Oleviste Church.

Its aesthetic impact on the viewer is determined not only by the dizzying height of the tower, but also by the noble simplicity, proportionality of architectural volumes and forms. From Lai Street, on which the main, western facade of the church comes out at an angle, a huge four-sided tower appears before the viewer. Everything in it is subordinated to one task - to express the powerful upward aspiration of the stone prism. The monumental portal of the entrance, deeply cut into the plane of the wall, seems small in comparison with the general dimensions. At the same time, a wide squat profiled portal, as it were, with difficulty overcomes the weight of the stone mass lying on it. A slender 14-meter lancet window rises freely and easily above the portal, preparing and anticipating the take-off of a pointed shako-spire. Above the window, the calm surface of the wall is cut through by two small, slender windows, and, finally, the upper part of the tower is crowned with two tiers of high lancet niches, as if facilitating the completion of the tower and giving it a restrainedly solemn look. On a solid foundation of a 60-meter prism, a more than 70-meter spire rises, the wooden frame of which burned repeatedly and was restored approximately in its former form.

The main compact mass of the church, small in comparison with the tower, with the roofs of the chancel and naves rising like steps, also visually prepares the rapid rise of the tower. Of interest are the scale ratios of the height of the tower with and without a spire and the height of the central and side aisles - 8:4:2:1. The somewhat rigid simplicity of these ratios emphasizes the spirit of restrained energy and stern confidence that the architectural image of the temple carries.

The interior of the church is subject to the same task. The stellated vaults of the central nave rest on massive tetrahedral pillars. And only in the polygonal altar part does the builder deviate from the restrained severity of decisions; the vaults here rest on slender octagonal columns.

The main center of life in the Lower City was the town hall and the market square in front of it, the only large square within the city walls. The well-preserved Town Hall (late 14th - early 15th century) is an excellent example of secular Estonian Gothic. The expressiveness of the image of the simple design of the town hall, crowned with a high gable roof, was based on a comparison of the rectangular array of the building itself and the octahedral, as it were, chiseled turret. The cornice of the turret is elegantly decorated with a frieze of light consoles, typical for Tallinn Gothic ( A high baroque shako (a tent superstructure over a stone tower) was repeatedly rebuilt. The shako is crowned with an openwork figured weather vane made of wrought iron, depicting a warrior - the guardian of the city, known as Old Thomas.).

The flat wall of the main facade of the town hall rose above the loggia with lancet arches running along the entire bottom of the building and was cut through by high windows of the second, main floor.

A feature very characteristic of medieval architecture was the asymmetry of the arrangement of windows along the facade. The architect aimed primarily at the architectural design of the interior of individual premises. The main hall was illuminated by three windows, of which the central one, for the sake of completeness of the impression, was higher. Smaller rooms were illuminated by a pair of windows or one window, and their scale and proportions were decided each time depending on the configuration of the room and its functional purpose. Hence the lively asymmetry of the arrangement of windows along the facade, which, however, is not devoid of unity, due to the general nature of the slender windows, enlivening the flat wall and introducing a festive variety into the monotonous rhythm of the heavier arcades of the basement gallery.

Town Hall Square was surrounded by rich burgher stone houses with high triangular pediments of gable roofs covered with red tiles. Mention should also be made of the monumental building of the Great Guild, which united large merchants and shipowners. This building was crowned with a high steep pediment, decorated with decorative lancet arches; the stone portals of the doors were richly profiled.

In conclusion, it should be said about the type of house of a wealthy wholesale merchant. Most of them were built after a huge fire in 1433. The houses faced the street with an end facade. The heavy door, framed by a profiled stone portal, was often decorated with sculptural carvings and a beautiful wrought iron knocker. A significant part of the lower floor was occupied by the front vestibule, in which cupboards and chests were placed; from the passage a door led into a semi-dark kitchen with a huge hearth. Behind the kitchen was a large living room. It was heated by warm air coming from a special hearth in the basement. The ceiling of the lower floor was supported by massive oak beams, sometimes resting on stone consoles. A wide wooden staircase with carved railings led from the passage to the second floor.

The second floor consisted of 2 - 3 small living rooms, of which usually only one room was heated - by a kitchen hearth chimney. At the very top, under a gable roof - away from a dashing person - there were warehouses for goods. The harbor was outside the city walls, and in general the merchant preferred to store goods in his own house in those turbulent times. Bales of goods were usually lifted up through a dormer window or attic hatch directly from the street using a block suspended from a thick beam protruding under the attic window.

At the end of the 15th century The ensemble of Tallinn was enriched with a large 36-meter artillery tower Kiek in de Kök, which protected the southwestern approaches to Vyshgorod. Harmonious in proportions, the tower simultaneously contrasted and organically entered the overall composition of the castle towers. Massive, completed with a small protruding cornice, it was very different from other towers of the city wall. Its numerous loopholes were designed for conducting "fire", that is, artillery combat.

An outstanding monument of Estonian late Gothic architecture was, judging by the preserved parts (walls and western pediment), the monastery church of St. Bridgets in Pirite near Tallinn (first half of the 15th century). The monastery was built under the guidance of the Tallinn builder Svalbart. The main element of the monastery complex was a three-nave hall church, the vaults of which were supported by slender octagonal columns. Its walls are made of limestone, the vaults, apparently, were brick. Outside, along the northern wall, a two-story religious procession for nuns stretched, and a religious procession for monks adjoined the southern wall. The church was supposed to give the impression of a monumental, grandiose building. A mighty parallelepiped, crowned with a high steep roof with triangular pediments, with profiled niches that lightened the mass and emphasized the aspiration of the pediment upwards, towered over the wooded area surrounding the monastery and the river valley and was visible from afar from the sea.

The most artistically significant monuments that completed the period of the later, “flaming” Gothic in Estonia were: the hall, graceful and light, harmonious in proportions, the chapel of St. Mary and the architectural complex of the coastal gates "Rannavyarov".

Wealthy magistrates of cities and churches, especially in Tallinn, ordered altars and other artistically made church utensils from famous masters of Western Europe. During the period under review, Tallinn was characterized by constant and close economic and cultural ties with the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. In the middle of the 13th c. on the basis of Lübeck law, the city law of Tallinn was developed (fragments of the manuscript of Lübeck law of the 13th century with interesting miniatures are stored in the Tallinn city archive). At the end of the 15th century in Lübeck, an altar was purchased for the Niguliste church (1482), attributed to Hermen Rode and Jan Stenrad. The Rode altar, the largest of the carved wooden altars in the Baltics (6.32 X 2.62), included more than 40 figures - Christ, Mary, apostles, prophets and saints, arranged in rows without a clear plot connection in three tiers.

From the end of the 15th and especially at the beginning of the 16th century. Estonian art, retaining mainly medieval forms, gradually began to be saturated with secular and realistic features associated with a new stage in the history of European art, that is, with the Renaissance.