In Estonian Linnahall means City Hall, however it’s quite a misleading name for this place at the moment. This giant concrete and limestone construction, which was finished as the biggest concert hall in Tallinn for the Olympic Sailing Regatta in 1980, now looks more like a godforsaken Mayan temple. There is no life inside and it is slowly declining, and that’s exactly what makes this place so special to me.

Tallinn is built on the sea, but unfortunately, due to military urban planning in the 1950s most of the city was cut from the sea. There are not so many places where you can privately enjoy the quality view of Tallinn’s bay and city, the port and Old Town, but this is one of the few. During summertime or even winter, together with my friends, we often grab some drinks and snacks, walk 10 minutes from Viru Gates along Merepuiestee Str., climb the stairs of Linnahall and have a picnic on the top.

Recommended for street art lovers and open urban space hunters, it’s still one of the most raw and uncivilized areas of the Tallinn city center. The walls of Linnahall are full of graffiti and some of them are even not that bad, it also gives you an impression of Soviet monumentalist architecture. In the beginning of the ’80s the project of Linnahall won several international architectural awards.