Kiek in de Kök

This 15th-century artillery tower was the tallest in the city and altogether the mightiest in the Baltic states. It was the first of the two artillery towers added to the walls of Tallinn. There are 6 floors but with the building of the Swedish era bastions later on the two lowest floors were buried underground. The peculiar name, Kiek in de Kök derives from old Low German and means ‘a peek into the kitchen’. It was said that from the upper floors you could look into the kitchens of the neighbouring houses. During the Livonian War, when the troops of Ivan the Terrible besieged the city and bombarded Kiek in de Kök with cannon balls and bullets for several months and tore a hole the size of an ox cart into its side. If you approach the tower from Toompea, you can still distinguish the outline and see some of the sizeable stone cannon balls in the wall. Luckily, the walls were never breached and the Russian’s army left, leaving Tallinn to recover. The tower lost its military importance in the second half of the 18th century and became state property.

Today Kiek in de Kök exhibits the history of town’s fortifications and history of crime and punishment in old Tallinn. The tower together with the Maiden’s Tower, the Stable Tower, the Gate Tower, the bastion passages and the Carved Stone Museum make up an over 500 meters long complex. It has two entrances: from the Kiek in de Kök tower and from the Maiden Tower.