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Fat Margaret (Estonian: Paks Margareeta, German: Dicke Margarethe) is a tower in Tallinn, Estonia.[1] Nowadays, the tower is home to Estonian Maritime Museum.
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The tower was built in the early 16th century (from 1511 to 1530) during the reconstruction of the medieval city gate system. The etymology of the tower's name derives from the fact that it was the largest part of the city's fortifications with walls measuring 25 meters in diameter, 20 meters in height and up to 5 meters thick. Apart from being a fortification against would-be invaders to the port of the town, it was also built to impress outside visitors arriving by sea.[2]
The tower is a defensive structure at the end of Pikk tänav (Pikk Street). Together with the Suur Rannavärav (Great Coastal Gate), a sixteenth-century arch flanked by two towers, it served to defend the harbour of Tallinn. Later, it was used as a storehouse for gunpowder and weapons, and then transformed into a prison, and was the scene of an outbreak of violence during the 1917 Revolution, when the prison guards were murdered by a mob of workers, soldiers and sailors.[citation needed] In the 1920s there were plans to convert it into an artists' home.[3] The tower was reconstructed from 1978 to 1981 to house the Maritime Museum.[4]
References
edit- ^ "X-GIS(3) Portal". xgis.maaamet.ee. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ "Great Coastal Gate and Fat Margaret tower". Tourism.Tallinn.ee. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- ^ "Prison to Be Home of Art". The Roanoke Times. Roanoke, VA. June 29, 1925. p. 6. Retrieved October 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Great Coastal Gate". Paks Margareeta. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
External links
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59°26′33″N 24°44′58″E / 59.44253°N 24.74955°E
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