Stenbock House

Stenbock House was originally intended as a court house of the province of Estonia but when the construction faced financial difficulties the builder, count Stenbock decided to finish it as his private residence in near the end of the 18th century. Some hundred years later the complex did become a court house for nearly a hundred years but since the year 2000 been the office of the Prime Minister and Government and the seat of Government sessions. Its general impression is quite laconic and simple. On the back façade of Stenbock House right beside the gate hangs a memorial plaque dedicated to the heads and members of government who perished in the communist terror. The yellow outbuilding originally functioned as a carriage house, stables, a warehouse, living quarters for court attendants and jail guards, and partially also as jail cells. A horseshoe shaped courtyard with an old linden tree is accessed through the vaulted main gate from Rahukohtu Street. The main facade with a balcony resting on six simple pillars faces the Baltic sea and while the head of the Prime Minister may be with the weight of a thousand thought and worries, a bad wiew is certainly not one of them.

Since 1855, the Stenbock House has allegedly been haunted by a young and beautiful dark-haired girl in a white dress covered in bloodstains. At that time, the building was used as a boarding house for the boys of the Dome School. It is said that the house master had a daughter who was found to be glancing at some of the boys too closely. Her strict father decided to call his daughter to order. When she would not listen to him, he grabbed a whip and chased the girl down the corridors of the house beating her until she fell, exhausted. Her spirit has been lingering in the hallways ever since but she is not malicious, and is known to offer occasional soft caresses to the passers-by.