Toompea - Toompea Today

Toompea Today

The much-rebuilt Toompea Castle – consisting of the czarist era governor's palace, walls and towers of the medieval fortress, the expressionist parliament building dating from 1922, plus a few other buildings – now houses the Estonian Parliament. The facade of the classicist governor's palace dominates Lossi plats ("Castle square"), where the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral overtops it. The cathedral, nowadays the main church of the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, has become for tourists somewhat of a symbol of Tallinn due to its exotic look, while the opinion of Estonians about it is rather ambiguous. The Lutheran Cathedral (Toomkirik) from which the name Toompea was originally derived, is now the seat of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and has perhaps best retained a medieval look among the buildings of Toompea. Most of the buildings in Toompea date from the 18th and 19th centuries. While the Small Castle has generally preserved its shape, nothing but a few fragments remain of the Great Castle's walls and towers.

Other notable sites in Toompea include the building of the Government of Estonia (also known as "The Stenbock House") and the building of the Estonian Knighthood, which from the early 1990s until 2005 housed the Estonian Art Museum and since 2009 is temporarily used by the Estonian Academy of Arts. The Estonian Academy of Sciences is also seated in Toompea, in the Ungern-Sternberg palace (seat of the local German cultural self-government in the interwar period).

Toompea is also the location of several foreign embassies to Estonia, namely those of Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the office of the embassy of Canada.

There are several viewing platforms in Toompea, which offer good views of the surrounding city and are popular among tourists visiting Tallinn.