Frozen in stone: Soviet architecture in Estonia. Architectural styles in Tallinn Outside the city wall

Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa, which was built from the beginning of the 15th century, are classic examples of the convention. Of these castles, the Kuressaare Episcopal Castle on the island of Saaremaa is the best preserved, the layout of which includes the square corner towers Sturvolt and Long Herman, as well as the chapel with a refectory located along the perimeter of the courtyard, the bishop's chambers, the chapter hall and the dormitory.

Fortress walls

The fortress walls and towers of Tallinn have been known since 1248, but the oldest walls and towers that have survived to this day date back to the 14th century. Construction continued into the 15th century, and the reconstruction of the fortifications was completed in the 1520s. They are still very well preserved: at the end of the 16th century, 26 towers were erected, of which 18 survived. The walls had a height of up to 8 meters and a thickness of 2.85 meters. A lancet arcade ran along the bottom of the inner part of the wall. During the -XVI centuries, as artillery developed, the towers were built on, cannon loopholes were arranged in them. The highest is the Kiek-in-de-Kök tower (38 m), the most massive is the four-story Fat Margaret in the Sea Gate complex. The city of Tartu had similar stone fortifications, but they were demolished in the 18th century.

Residential buildings

Tallinn residential buildings of the 15th - early 16th centuries belong to the gable type, when a narrow facade comes out onto the street, topped with a gable roof covered with a gable roof (bishop's house, the house of the Big Guild, the Three Sisters houses of the first half of the 15th century, the house on Lai Street, 25 , other houses of the old city).

town hall

A landmark of civil architecture is the Town Hall in Tallinn built in 1404 with a lancet arcade of the first tier on the longitudinal facade and a tall thin octahedral tower along the axis of the chimney facade topped with a triangular gable. It is the only surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe.

Guilds

Guild houses in Tallinn are known for their exquisite interiors (the Gothic hall of the Great Guild of 1410, the hall of the Olaevskaya Guild of 1424). The facades of the three guilds of Tallinn are made by skilled craftsmen and deserve the attention of people, especially since they are not far from each other: the buildings of the Great Guild and Olaf are made in the Gothic style, Knud - in the pseudo-Gothic English Tudor style.

Churches of Tallinn

The Church of the Holy Spirit of the XIV century is unusual in its spatial composition. It is double-nave, hall-type, with a tower on a chimney facade and with a high gable. The originally planned third nave was not built, because then one of the central streets of the city would have been blocked.

Renaissance: 1550-1630

The Renaissance came to Estonia under Swedish rule. Renaissance and mannerist influences were manifested only in small architectural forms and decor, which adorned buildings that were completely Gothic in composition and construction. The only surviving building in this style is the House of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads in Tallinn (1597, rebuilding of the Gothic building). Another - important (weight) - destroyed in 1944.

Early Baroque: 1630s-1730s

The early baroque is represented by few monuments, given the then decline in construction activity due to numerous wars in the region: the most prominent are the town hall in Narva in 1671, the Tallinn Gate in Pärnu at the end of the 17th century.

Late Baroque: 1710s-1775s

As a result of the Northern War, the territory of Estonia became part of the Russian Empire. The most outstanding attraction is the Ekaterinental (Kadriorg) palace and park ensemble, created in 1723 by order of the Russian Emperor Peter I, architect Niccolò Michetti. The style is close to the then St. Petersburg architecture, rather restrained in the use of expressive means, including decor. Another significant example of baroque is the residence of the governor of the Estland province, built in 1773 on the site of the destroyed east wall Toompea castle. The building with side risalits, painted pink, still attracts attention with its beauty and nobility. Initially, the palace was built on two floors, the third floor and portico were added in 1935.

Classicism: 1745-1840

Classicist style is represented mainly in the university city of Tartu and in Tallinn. Town Hall in Tartu, built in 1789, still contains echoes of the late Baroque and the overall composition is somewhat reminiscent of the town hall in Narva.

The largest monument of classicism is the complex of the University of Tartu, the main building of which was built in strict and monumental order forms in 1803 according to the project of the German architect I. Krause, who was a professor of economics, technology and civil architecture at this university. The classical ensemble is complemented by other university buildings, among which the anatomical theater is the most significant.

Examples of classicism in Tallinn: the house of Pontus Stenbock, the palace of Kaulbars-Benckendorff on Toompea.

In Tallinn, the belt of bastion fortifications around the Old Town was eliminated, and a park ring was created instead. Country manor houses of order architecture became a characteristic phenomenon. For example, Saku Manor, Riisipere Manor, Kernu Manor, Kirnu Manor, Kolga Manor, Raikküla Manor, Udriku Manor, Aaspere Manor, Hyreda Manor, Pirgu Manor, Vohnia Manor, Uhtna Manor, Massu Manor, Härgla Manor, Räpina Manor, Penijõe Manor, Lihula , Kasti manor , Triigi manor , Putkaste manor , Kurisoo manor , Tori manor , Orina manor , Vyhmuta manor , Caravete manor .

Historicism: 1840-1900

The dominant direction of historicism in Estonian architecture is neo-Gothic, an example of which is the Kaarli Church in Tallinn (1870, architect A. Gippius). The Ungern-Sternberg Palace (1865, architect Groppius), inspired by the Florentine Palazzo Strozzi, also complemented by neo-Gothic chimney towers and made of brick, makes a very vivid impression and remains in memory. The facade of the building of the Guild of St. Canute was built in the English Tudor style (English pseudo-Gothic). An example of the Neo-Renaissance is the building of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Toomkololi Street.

Modern: 1900-1920

Estonian modern belongs to the so-called northern modern. In Tallinn, it was formed under the influence of St. Petersburg, Finland and Riga. Close to rational modernity, but with motifs of national-romantic stylizations. In this stylization, tenement houses in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, as well as villas of that time, are solved.

The most public buildings include the Tallinn theater "Estonia" (now the National Opera) 1910-1913 (architect A. Lindgren) and the German Theater (now the Estonian Drama Theater) 1910 (St. Petersburg architects A. F. Bubyr and N. V. Vasiliev) ; the Endla Theater in Pärnu in 1911 (architects G. Hellat and E. Wolfeldt); student society building in Tartu, 1902.

Dependencies Unrecognized and partially recognized states

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An excerpt characterizing the architecture of Estonia

About two years ago, in 1808, returning to St. Petersburg from his trip to the estates, Pierre involuntarily became the head of St. Petersburg Freemasonry. He set up dining and funeral lodges, recruited new members, took care of uniting various lodges and acquiring genuine acts. He gave his money for the construction of temples and replenished, as far as he could, almsgiving, for which most of the members were stingy and sloppy. He almost alone at his own expense supported the house of the poor, arranged by the order in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, his life went on as before, with the same hobbies and licentiousness. He liked to dine and drink well, and although he considered it immoral and humiliating, he could not refrain from the amusements of bachelor societies in which he participated.
In the wake of his studies and hobbies, Pierre, however, after a year, began to feel how the soil of Freemasonry on which he stood, the more he left under his feet, the more firmly he tried to stand on it. At the same time, he felt that the deeper the soil on which he stood went under his feet, the more involuntarily he was connected with it. When he began Freemasonry, he experienced the feeling of a man trustingly placing his foot on the flat surface of a swamp. Putting his foot down, he fell. In order to fully assure himself of the firmness of the ground on which he stood, he put his other foot on and sank even more, got stuck and already involuntarily walked knee-deep in the swamp.
Iosif Alekseevich was not in Petersburg. (He has recently retired from the affairs of St. Petersburg lodges and lived without a break in Moscow.) All the brothers, members of the lodges, were people familiar to Pierre in life, and it was difficult for him to see in them only brothers in stoneworking, and not Prince B., not Ivan Vasilyevich D., whom he knew in life for the most part as weak and insignificant people. From under the Masonic aprons and signs, he saw on them uniforms and crosses, which they had achieved in life. Often, collecting alms and counting 20-30 rubles written down for the parish, and mostly in debt from ten members, of whom half were as rich as he was, Pierre recalled the Masonic oath that each brother promises to give everything property for a neighbor; and doubts arose in his soul, on which he tried not to dwell.
He divided all the brothers he knew into four categories. In the first category, he ranked brothers who do not take an active part either in the affairs of lodges or in human affairs, but are exclusively occupied with the sacraments of the science of the order, occupied with questions about the triple name of God, or about the three principles of things, sulfur, mercury and salt, or about the meaning square and all the figures of Solomon's temple. Pierre respected this category of Masonic brothers, to which the old brothers mostly belonged, and Joseph Alekseevich himself, according to Pierre, did not share their interests. His heart did not lie to the mystical side of Freemasonry.
In the second category, Pierre included himself and brothers like himself, who are searching, hesitating, who have not yet found a direct and understandable path in Freemasonry, but hoping to find it.
In the third category, he ranked the brothers (there were the largest number of them), who did not see anything in Freemasonry except for the external form and rituals and valued the strict execution of this external form, not caring about its content and meaning. Such were Vilarsky and even the great master of the main lodge.
To the fourth category, finally, was also ranked a large number of brethren, especially those who have lately joined the brotherhood. These were people, according to Pierre's observations, who did not believe in anything, who did not want anything, and who entered Freemasonry only to get closer to young rich and strong brothers in connections and nobility, of whom there were very many in the lodge.
Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with his activities. Freemasonry, at least the Freemasonry he knew here, sometimes seemed to him to be based on appearance alone. He did not even think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but he suspected that Russian Freemasonry had taken the wrong path and deviated from its source. And therefore, at the end of the year, Pierre went abroad to initiate himself into the highest secrets of the order.

In the summer back in 1809, Pierre returned to St. Petersburg. According to the correspondence of our Freemasons with foreign ones, it was known that Bezuhiy managed to gain the trust of many high-ranking officials abroad, penetrated many secrets, was elevated to the highest degree, and was carrying with him a lot for the common good of the masonry business in Russia. Petersburg Freemasons all came to him, currying favor with him, and it seemed to everyone that he was hiding something and preparing something.
A solemn meeting of the lodge of the 2nd degree was appointed, in which Pierre promised to inform what he had to convey to the St. Petersburg brothers from the highest leaders of the order. The meeting was full. After the usual rituals, Pierre got up and began his speech.
“Dear brothers,” he began, blushing and stammering, and holding a written speech in his hand. – It is not enough to observe our sacraments in the quiet of the lodge – you need to act… act. We are in stupor, and we need to act. Pierre took his notebook and began to read.
“In order to spread pure truth and bring the triumph of virtue,” he read, we must cleanse people of prejudices, spread rules that are consistent with the spirit of the times, take upon ourselves the education of youth, unite with inseparable ties with the most intelligent people, boldly and together prudently overcome superstition, unbelief and stupidity, to form from people devoted to us, connected with each other by a unity of purpose and having power and strength.
“To achieve this goal, virtue must be given a preponderance over vice, one must strive so that an honest person gains an eternal reward for his virtues in this world. But in these great intentions we are hindered by quite a lot - the current political institutions. What to do in such a state of affairs? Shall we favor revolutions, overthrow everything, expel force by force?... No, we are very far from that. Every violent reform is reprehensible, because it will do nothing to correct evil as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need for violence.
“The entire plan of the order should be based on educating people who are firm, virtuous and bound by the unity of conviction, a conviction consisting in pursuing vice and stupidity everywhere and with all your might and patronizing talents and virtue: to extract worthy people from the dust, joining them to our brotherhood. Then only our order will have the power to insensitively bind the hands of the patrons of disorder and control them so that they do not notice it. In a word, it is necessary to establish a universal dominating form of government, which would extend over the whole world without destroying civil bonds, and under which all other governments could continue in their usual order and do everything except that only that hinders the great goal of our order, then is the delivery of virtue triumph over vice. Christianity itself presupposed this goal. It taught people to be wise and kind, and for their own benefit to follow the example and instructions of the best and wisest people.
“Then, when everything was immersed in darkness, of course, one sermon was enough: the news of the truth gave it special power, but now much stronger means are needed for us. Now it is necessary that a person, guided by his feelings, find sensual charms in virtue. It is impossible to eradicate passions; we must only try to direct them to a noble goal, and therefore it is necessary that everyone be able to satisfy his passions within the limits of virtue, and that our order should provide means for this.
“How soon will we have a certain number worthy people in each state, each of them again forms two others, and all of them will be closely united with each other - then everything will be possible for the order, which secretly has already managed to do a lot for the good of mankind.
This speech made not only a strong impression, but also excitement in the box. The majority of the brothers, who saw in this speech the dangerous plans of the Illuminati, accepted his speech with coldness that surprised Pierre. The great master began to object to Pierre. Pierre began to develop his thoughts with great and great fervor. There hasn't been such a stormy meeting for a long time. Parties were formed: some accused Pierre, condemning him for the Illuminati; others supported him. For the first time at this meeting, Pierre was struck by the infinite diversity of human minds, which makes it so that no truth is equally presented to two people. Even those of the members who seemed to be on his side understood him in their own way, with restrictions, changes that he could not agree to, since Pierre's main need was precisely to convey his thought to another exactly as he himself understood her.
At the end of the meeting, the great master, with hostility and irony, made a remark to Bezukhoi about his ardor and that not only love for virtue, but also the enthusiasm for the struggle led him in the dispute. Pierre did not answer him and briefly asked if his proposal would be accepted. He was told that no, and Pierre, without waiting for the usual formalities, left the box and went home.

Pierre again found that longing that he was so afraid of. For three days after delivering his speech in the box, he lay at home on the sofa, receiving no one and not leaving anywhere.
At this time, he received a letter from his wife, who begged him for a date, wrote about her sadness for him and about her desire to devote her whole life to him.
At the end of the letter, she informed him that one of these days she would come to St. Petersburg from abroad.
Following the letter, one of the Masonic brothers, less respected by him, burst into Pierre’s solitude and, having brought the conversation to Pierre’s marital relations, in the form of fraternal advice, expressed to him the idea that his strictness towards his wife was unfair, and that Pierre deviates from the first rules of the Mason. not forgiving the penitent.
At the same time, his mother-in-law, the wife of Prince Vasily, sent for him, begging him to visit her at least for a few minutes to negotiate a very important matter. Pierre saw that there was a conspiracy against him, that they wanted to unite him with his wife, and this was not even unpleasant for him in the state in which he was. He did not care: Pierre did not consider anything in life a matter of great importance, and under the influence of the longing that now took possession of him, he did not value either his freedom or his persistence in punishing his wife.
"No one is right, no one is to blame, so she is not to blame either," he thought. - If Pierre did not immediately express his consent to union with his wife, it was only because, in the state of anguish in which he was, he was not able to do anything. If his wife came to him, he would not drive her away now. Was it not all the same, in comparison with what occupied Pierre, to live or not to live with his wife?
Without answering anything to his wife or mother-in-law, Pierre once got ready for the road late in the evening and left for Moscow to see Iosif Alekseevich. Here is what Pierre wrote in his diary.
Moscow, November 17th.
I have just arrived from a benefactor, and I hasten to write down everything that I experienced at the same time. Iosif Alekseevich lives in poverty and suffers for the third year from a painful bladder disease. No one ever heard from him a groan, or a word of grumbling. From morning until late at night, with the exception of the hours in which he eats the simplest food, he works on science. He received me graciously and sat me down on the bed on which he was lying; I made him the sign of the knights of the East and Jerusalem, he answered me the same, and with a meek smile asked me about what I had learned and acquired in the Prussian and Scottish lodges. I told him everything as well as I could, conveying the grounds that I offered in our St. Petersburg box and reported on the bad reception that had been given to me, and about the rupture that had occurred between me and the brothers. Iosif Alekseevich, after a considerable pause and thought, presented to me his view of all this, which instantly illuminated for me everything that had passed and the whole future path that lay before me. He surprised me by asking me if I remember what the threefold purpose of the order is: 1) to keep and know the sacrament; 2) in the purification and correction of oneself for the perception of it, and 3) in the correction of the human race through the desire for such purification. What is the main and first goal of these three? Certainly own correction and purification. Only towards this goal can we always strive, regardless of all circumstances. But at the same time, this goal requires the most labor from us, and therefore, deluded by pride, we, missing this goal, either take on the sacrament that we are unworthy to receive because of our impurity, or take on the correction of the human race, when we ourselves are an example of abomination and depravity. Illuminism is not a pure doctrine precisely because it is carried away by social activities and is full of pride. On this basis, Iosif Alekseevich condemned my speech and all my activities. I agreed with him in the depths of my soul. On the occasion of our conversation about my family affairs, he said to me: - The main duty of a true Mason, as I told you, is to perfect himself. But often we think that by removing all the difficulties of our life from ourselves, we will more quickly achieve this goal; on the contrary, my lord, he told me, only in the midst of secular unrest can we achieve three main goals: 1) self-knowledge, for a person can know himself only through comparison, 2) improvement, only by struggle is it achieved, and 3) achieve the main virtue - love for death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us the futility of it and can contribute to our innate love for death or rebirth into a new life. These words are all the more remarkable because Iosif Alekseevich, despite his severe physical suffering, is never burdened by life, but loves death, for which, despite all the purity and loftiness of his inner man, he still does not feel himself sufficiently prepared. Then the benefactor fully explained to me the meaning of the great square of the universe and pointed out that the triple and the seventh number are the foundation of everything. He advised me not to distance myself from communication with the St. Petersburg brothers and, occupying only positions of the 2nd degree in the lodge, to try, distracting the brothers from the hobbies of pride, to turn them to the true path of self-knowledge and improvement. In addition, for himself personally, he advised me first of all to take care of myself, and for this purpose he gave me a notebook, the same one in which I write and will continue to enter all my actions.
Petersburg, November 23rd.
“I live with my wife again. My mother-in-law came to me in tears and said that Helen was here and that she begged me to listen to her, that she was innocent, that she was unhappy at my abandonment, and much more. I knew that if I only allowed myself to see her, I would no longer be able to refuse her desire. In my doubt, I did not know whose help and advice to resort to. If the benefactor were here, he would tell me. I retired to my room, reread the letters of Joseph Alekseevich, remembered my conversations with him, and from everything I deduced that I should not refuse the one who asks and should give a helping hand to anyone, especially a person so connected with me, and should bear my cross. But if I forgave her for the sake of virtue, then let my union with her have one spiritual purpose. So I decided and so I wrote to Joseph Alekseevich. I told my wife that I ask her to forget everything old, I ask her to forgive me what I could be guilty of before her, and that I have nothing to forgive her. I was glad to tell her this. Let her not know how hard it was for me to see her again. Settled in a large house in the upper chambers and experiencing a happy feeling of renewal.

As always, even then, high society, uniting together at court and at big balls, was divided into several circles, each with its own shade. Among them, the most extensive was the French circle, the Napoleonic Union - Count Rumyantsev and Caulaincourt "a. In this circle, Helen occupied one of the most prominent places as soon as she and her husband settled in St. Petersburg. She visited the gentlemen of the French embassy and a large number of people, known for their intelligence and courtesy, who belonged to this direction.
Helen was in Erfurt during the famous meeting of the emperors, and from there she brought these connections with all the Napoleonic sights of Europe. In Erfurt, she had a brilliant success. Napoleon himself, noticing her in the theater, said about her: "C" est un superbe animal. "[This is a beautiful animal.] Her success as a beautiful and elegant woman did not surprise Pierre, because over the years she became even more beautiful than before But what surprised him was that in these two years his wife managed to acquire a reputation for herself
"d" une femme charmante, aussi spirituelle, que belle. "[A charming woman, as smart as beautiful.] The famous Prince de Ligne [Prince de Ligne] wrote letters to her on eight pages. Bilibin saved his mots [words], to say them for the first time in the presence of Countess Bezukhova.To be received in the salon of Countess Bezukhova was considered a diploma of the mind; young people read books before Helen's evening, so that there was something to talk about in her salon, and the secretaries of the embassy, ​​and even envoys, confided diplomatic secrets to her, so that Helene was a force in some way. Pierre, who knew that she was very stupid, with a strange feeling of bewilderment and fear, sometimes attended her parties and dinners, where politics, poetry and philosophy were discussed. At these evenings he experienced a similar feeling which the conjurer must experience, expecting every time that his deceit is about to be revealed. not in this deceit, the deceit was not revealed, and the reputation of d "une femme charmante et spirituelle was so unshakably established for Elena Vasilyevna Bezukhova that she could speak the biggest vulgarities and stupidities, and yet everyone admired her every word and looked for deep meaning in it which she herself did not suspect.

I am convinced that architecture is the face of a country, a city, personifying and telling their story. Estonia in this sense is no exception, the architecture of its cities reflects the essence of this country, which was in different periods of its existence as part of different states, but retained its originality.

Therefore, first of all, I would divide the entire Estonian architecture into istoric periods - styles. Here you can find:

• Medieval architecture, partly influenced by older northern countries(which has the best preservation among the countries of northern Europe). A lot of the Middle Ages in Tallinn - the whole Old Town with fortress walls, in Tartu - historical Center with several medieval churches, and of course in Narva - I mean one of the most famous attractions to me not only in the city, but also in the country - Narva Castle.

• Modern. Before visiting here, I did not even suspect that there is so much architecture of this style in Estonia. Still, in the first place, I associated the country with the Middle Ages, with sharp spiers of cathedrals and towers. But there is indeed a lot of modernity here - entire blocks of residential buildings in Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, public buildings - for example, theaters in Tallinn and Pärnu, churches in Tartu.

The second classification option Estonian architecture, which, I think, would be appropriate - in terms of type and purpose.

• Churches - in Estonia there are Catholic and Protestant churches, and there are Orthodox cathedrals (the most recognizable is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn). In general, it seems to me that the proximity and influence of other states - Sweden, Denmark, Russia - was best reflected in the cult architecture.

• Forts and fortress towers. I would say that Estonia is famous for its defensive structures - Narva, Tallinn, and even on the island of Saaremaa there is a beautiful fortified castle. And in the Narva Castle, by the way, knightly tournaments and all sorts of medieval festivals are very often arranged. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to visit them yet.

• Palaces and mansions. I already wrote about the most famous palace complex above - this is Kadriorg. The construction of which, by the way, was started by the order of Peter I. Estates or manors - as I noticed, they are quite often found mainly outside the city, in the vicinity of Tallinn and Tartu.
• Residential houses. Curious examples of stone and wooden buildings, completely different in time of construction - from the Middle Ages to the present, were found in all major cities, separately surprise and impress entrance doors - bright, not repeating and not similar to each other

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 from the science center with 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 been working at the premises of the Tartu Observatory, and since 2009 at mall Lõunakeskus in Tartu and 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. We were met in the lobby 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 how it is done in many interactive museums 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 is a huge water world, which is 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 in front of the Karja Gate appeared new tower for artillery. 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 was built Church of the Transfiguration and in the same years, the baroque chapel of Manteuffel and a number of more modest chapels in the Kopley cemetery were built in the Myigu 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 for 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 feature 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.

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