Kalamaja

Kalamaja, fish house, was the fishermen's settlement outside the Tallinn walls and grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries into a workers' district for the shipyards and factories, filled with the wooden apartment buildings known as Tallinn houses: two or three storeys of timber with a stone stairwell in the centre, painted in strong colours, built quickly and in numbers. The industry went and the district declined, then from the 2000s it was renovated and became the fashionable quarter, with the Telliskivi creative city in old rail workshops, the Balti Jaam market, Noblessner on the waterfront and the seaplane harbour museum. Much of the housing stock survives.

The main sights

• Tallinn houses - the painted wooden apartment buildings.
• Telliskivi - the creative quarter in the old rail workshops.
• Balti Jaam market - the market hall beside the station.
• The waterfront - Noblessner and the seaplane harbour.

When to go

May to September for walking the streets, though the district works year round. Weekends fill Telliskivi and the market. Evenings are when the bars and restaurants are busiest.

Before you go

Gentrification has pushed prices up and the district is now expensive by Estonian standards. The wooden houses are private homes, not open. Telliskivi and the waterfront are heavily commercialised. There are no formal sights beyond the streets themselves.

Nearby

Tallinn old town lies south; Noblessner is on the waterfront.

Key facts