Toompea Castle sits on a limestone promontory that has been fortified in some form since the 9th century, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied defensive sites in northern Europe. What you see today is a layered architectural record of every power that has ruled Estonia — Danish crusaders began building in stone in the 13th century, the Livonian Order added the iconic Tall Hermann tower in the 14th, and Swedish, Russian, and finally Estonian hands each left their mark on the structure. The pink baroque palace wing that dominates the western facade was commissioned by Catherine the Great in the 1770s, a deliberate imperial statement that now, somewhat ironically, houses the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu. Standing in front of it, that tension between occupation and sovereignty feels very much alive.
Castle