Pikk 70
Tel. 641 1408
Bus: 3 Trolley: 1, 2
Open: 10am-
6pm Wed- Sun
Estonian Maritime Museum
Open: 10am- 6pm Wed- Sun
www.meremuuseum.ee
Fat Margaret Tower or Paks Margareeta is a defense tower that was part of the external buildings of the Tallinn city wall at the end of Pika street in the old town of Tallinn. The Estonian Maritime Museum is located there.
After the completion of the Tallinn city wall, additional front gates
were built in front of the gate towers in the wall to secure the weakest
parts of the city wall.
The front gate of the Suure Rannavärava
resembled the Viru front gate with two small towers preserved to this
day. The smaller tower on the western side has been preserved, while the
eastern one is currently occupied by Paks Margareeta.
Under the
foundation of the thick Margareeta, the walls of the former Great Beach
Gate are well preserved.
The cannon tower Paks Margareeta was
built during the third renewal of the front gate of the Great Beach Gate
between 1518 and 1529 on the site of the former Roosiaia. The tower got
its current name in 1842, before that the tower was called Rosencrantz.
The tower was probably designed by Clemens Pale, from 1520 the work was
supervised by master Gert Koningk from Münster, who had also worked at
the Oleviste Church. The reconstruction work was completely finished in
1531, the end of the main works (1529) is marked by a dolomite
flame-style coat of arms plaque on the outside of the front gate.
The cannon tower Paks Margareeta was built in a three-quarter
circular shape with a diameter of 25 m and a wall thickness of 4.4 to
6.5 m, with the thickness gradually decreasing upwards. The tower was
originally five-storeyed, the three lower floors were intended for
cannons, the fourth was the mashikuli floor, and the fifth was the
mashikuli, which was an open platform with numerous firing holes, and
the defense passage along it was roofed.
Due to the natural fall
of the ground, the height of the tower was 16 m on the west side and 22
m on the east side. Along with Paksu Margareeta, a 3 m thick and 6.8 m
high side defense rampart was also built from Paksu Margareeta to the
Stolting tower, with which a zwinger was formed between the city wall
and the new tower. With the construction of Paksu Margareeta, the
history of Tallinn's city wall construction ends.
Between 1640
and 1650, Hornbastion was built in front of the northeast corner of
Paksu Margareeta. At the end of the 16th century, it was reconstructed
as a bastion of the Suure Rannavärava and has survived to this day,
burying the lower part of Paksu Margareeta.
In 1683–1704, the
cannon tower of Paksu Margareeta was reconstructed. The original
artillery floor and the floor above it were demolished and replaced with
a normal artillery floor, the tower itself was covered with a high stone
roof.
After the Northern War, forced laborers who were employed
in the construction works of the port of Tallinn were settled there. In
the 1830s, the tower was converted into a prison. Even after Tallinn
Fortress was removed from the list of Russian land fortresses in 1857,
the tower remained in the possession of the engineering corps and was
used as a prison.
In 1884, a four-story limestone prison
auxiliary building was built against the south side of the tower (it was
the second building built as a prison in Tallinn). The cabbage garden
and landfill built for the purpose of the prison near the Margareeta
garden, or Suure Rannavärava bastion, were liquidated in 1902, and in
its place was built a scrap market.
During the February
Revolution in 1917, the prison was set on fire and the political
prisoners there were released. The internal wooden buildings of the
tower, the parapet of the medieval front gate and its lifting device
were also destroyed in the fire. In search of supposed underground
dungeons, the tower was blown up with dynamite.
Between 1918 and
1922, the cannon tower belonged to the Ministry of Defence; 1922–1923 in
the possession of the Ministry of Education and 1923–1932 in the
possession of the Ministry of Roads.
They wanted to build, for
example, a dance hall with a rotating floor, a cinema and a city wood
warehouse in the empty and untidy tower. The idea of establishing the
Tallinn History Museum remained, the leaders were the Tallinn History
Society and the then city archivist Hugo Peets. In the years 1938–1940,
the auxiliary building and the front gate building of the prison were
reconstructed into the premises of the Tallinn City Museum. The
exposition was opened in August 1940.
In the years 1978-1980, the
entire preserved complex was reconstructed for the use of the maritime
museum. The exhibition rooms of the museum are located in Paksus
Margareta; staff rooms in the auxiliary building of the prison, above
the front gate and in the west tower.
In 2018, during the
construction works, previously unknown wall fragments were found in the
zwinger south of the tower, probably with walls belonging to the earlier
construction stage of Suure Rannavärava, which was built in the middle
of the 15th century, i.e. more than 50 years before the cannon tower of
Paksu Margareeta.
A long time ago, a peasant son Herman and a fisherman's daughter Margarita lived in Tallinn. They fell in love with each other and in the evenings they walked around the city for a long time, holding hands. However, the curse that hung over them - to see each other only until midnight - threatened their happiness. Once they missed the hour of parting and, when the clock began to strike twelve o'clock, they rushed in different directions, but with the last blow, the slender and tall Herman became a tall tower, which today is called "Long Herman", and Margarita turned into a tower "Fat Margarita". So they stand on opposite sides of the Old City in memory of the lovers, who were separated by a cruel fate.