page_title: Toompea
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Toompea / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: English: Extract from a 1810 map of Tallinn, showing the borders of Toompea and the rest of town. Toompea (Вышгородъ) on the left, Tallinn (Lower Town - Губернской Городъ Ревелъ) on the right. Border of the territory of Toompea is shown with a red line (Вышгородцкая Граница). Форштатъ: Vorstadt, settlements outside the city walls. Русский: Специальная геометрическая карта, показывающая границы губернского города Ревеля, в которой означены также границы наследственно городу принадлежащей мыза Габерст и городских выгонов и сенокосов. 1810
context_page_description: Toompea is a limestone hill in the central part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The hill is an oblong tableland, which measures about 400 by 250 metres, has an area of 7 hectares and is about 20–30 metres higher than the surrounding areas. In folklore the hill is known as the tumulus mound over the grave of Kalev, erected in his memory by his grieving wife.
  The history of Toompea is closely linked to the history of rulers and power in Estonia. Today Toompea is the center of the Government of Estonia and the Riigikogu, both of which are often simply referred to as Toompea. The location of the Riigikogu is the Toompea Castle, situated in the southwestern corner of the hill and topped by the Tall Hermann tower. The flag on the top of the tower is one of the best-known symbols in Estonia of the government in force.
  Toompea is part of the Tallinn Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site.
context_section_description: The hill fort is mentioned in the Henry of Livonia's Chronicle of the Livonian Crusade by the name Lindanise. As part of the crusade, in the summer of 1219 the King of Denmark Valdemar II launched an attack against Tallinn. His crusaders took over the deserted stronghold and at the same summer started building a new castle in its place, later referred to as the Castrum Danorum. After the Battle of Lindanise which was fought near the castle and resulted Danish victory over the Estonians, a cathedral was also built on the hill, though it was probably not located in the same place as today's cathedral.
  In the summer of 1227 the castle at Toompea was conquered by the order of the Brothers of the Sword, who immediately after conquest started to fortify the hill. The plateau was divided into three parts: the Small Castle, the Great Castle and the outer ward (southernmost part of the plateau in front of the two castles). The first stone Castle of the Order (the Small Castle) was built in the southwestern corner of the plateau in 1227-1229. The original castle had roughly the same shape as the later expansions of the castle, but was slightly smaller. The castle was returned to Denmark after the Treaty of Stensby in 1238 and remained its property (together with the rest of Northern Estonia – see Danish Estonia) for the next 138 years. In 1240 building of the cathedral was completed in the place it stands today. In the second half of the 13th century Toompea (the Great Castle) was surrounded with a wall by the hill's perimeter, built mainly by vassals who owned the plots there.
  Beginning from the same period Toompea started to develop into the centre of provincial authority, clergy and nobility in Northern Estonia. Most of the vassals chose Toompea for their residence – living in their estates in the conquered countryside was deemed too dangerous; by the end of the 13th century the Great Castle was densely populated. The distinction between Toompea and the Lower Town (Tallinn) also developed at the time as Tallinn gained its own administration – at least in 1248, when the King of Denmark Eric IV granted the town Lübeck city rights, but possibly even earlier. In 1265 the Lower Town was exempted from the rule of the castellan and in 1288 the commanders of the castle also lost judicial power over the citizens of the Lower Town.
  Construction and expansion works on both castles continued in the subsequent centuries. In the first half of the 14th century the southern wall of the Great Castle was renovated and its moat was joined with the eastern moat of the Small Castle.  In this way the outer ward of the castles was built, after its southern and southeastern sides were surrounded with a wall. The castle as a whole had two exits at the time: the more important one was outer ward's  southern gate, through which the road led to Tõnismägi, the second was the gate at its eastern, which connected Toompea with Lower Town via the Long and Short Legs.
  In the aftermath of the St. George's Night Uprising, in 1346 Denmark sold its possessions in Northern Estonia and followed 215 years under the rule of the Livonian Order. Tallinn (the Lower Town), which was still subjected to Lübeck city rights and only nominally depended on the feudal system, developed into a flourishing Hanseatic city, while Toompea remained politically and socially antithetical to the Lower Town. The boundaries of the territory of Toompea and Tallinn were fixed with an agreement in 1348, when 220 hectares (540 acres) from the city's patrimony was given to Toompea. That area, located southwest of the hill and where the suburbs (Vorstadt) of Toompea  (Tõnismäe, Kassisaba and Kelmiküla) were built during subsequent periods, was called "Dome territory" until the 20th century.
  Soon after returning to Toompea, the Order started expanding the castle – the whole Castle of the Order (German: Ordensburg) was extended and developed into the strongest centre of its northerly realms, a symbol of their military and political power. New higher outside walls were built, moats were widened and 
caption: An early 19th century map showing the border between the territories of Toompea and the Lower Town
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