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House of the Blackheads is a public building in the historical part of Old Tallinn. Originally it belonged to the Brotherhood of Blackheads that bought current building from Rathmann Fianta in 1517.
It is located in the historical old town of Reval on Long Street (Estonian Pikk tänav), at the address Long Street 26.
The Brotherhood of Blackheads was formed in 1399 when the unmarried
members left the Great Guild of merchants. After marriage, the
Blackheads then transitioned into the Great Guild. Later, foreign
merchants who stayed in Reval also belonged to the Blackheads. The name
goes back to the patron saint of the brotherhood, Saint Mauritius, who
was depicted as a Moor.
The German-speaking Blackheads held an
important social position in Reval. Close relations existed with the
Catherine Monastery. The Blackheads participated in jousting
tournaments. A tournament has been handed down from the year 1536, in
which a blackhead probably threw a country nobleman out of the saddle,
which led to considerable unrest in the city. The Blackheads also
provided a mounted unit to defend Reval. A confrontation with Russian
troops on September 11, 1560 in front of the walls of Reval has been
handed down, in which ten Blackheads fell. The Blackheads had their own
armaments and carried out summer exercises in the country until the 19th
century. Later in the 19th century, the Blackheads were still
responsible for providing the mounted escort of honor in Reval for the
imperial family or sovereigns. They wore the uniforms of the Guards
Dragon Regiment, which had been given to them by the Russian Tsar
Nicholas I.
Originally, as there were no upmarket inns in Reval,
the Brotherhood also had the task of accommodating traveling merchants.
The brotherhood kept a brother's book in which guests of the
brotherhood, including the Russian monarchs since Peter the Great,
signed themselves.
In 1517, the brotherhood leased a merchant's
house at Langstrasse 26, which they then acquired as their property in
1531. It had two rooms, with a large hall above the vestibule instead of
the usual attic. In the course of the Reformation, there was an
iconoclasm on September 14, 1524, during which the interior of the
Catherine Monastery associated with the Blackheads was destroyed.
However, the Blackheads had previously managed to secure the magnificent
altar of the Blackheads, which had come from Lübeck in 1495 and was
located as a side altar in the church. The altar then stood in the House
of the Blackheads for centuries. In 1531/1532 another hall was built
south of the courtyard on Heiligengeiststrasse. It was 4.50 meters high
and had a large octagonal pillar complete with supporting arches as a
supporting element. There was no vault. The hall was divided into two
naves by means of three columns. On one of the capitals the year of
completion 1531 was written in Roman script (MVCXXXIJ).
There are
several stone sculptures on the facade of the building facing
Langstrasse. The oldest sculptures are the plaques on both sides of the
entrance donated by Ewert Schroeder and Hans Koser in 1575, which show a
coat of arms of a Moor's head with a forehead bandage.
In 1597
extensive renovation work was carried out by the master builder Arent
Passer, who was well-known in Reval. The facade in particular was also
changed. Although the old structure and the Gothic elements were
preserved, elements of the Dutch Renaissance were added at the same
time. Due to the preservation of the building structure, the
asymmetrical division of the facade remained, which is shifted slightly
to the right in the left part of the building, whereby the gable itself
is symmetrical and decorated with volutes at the edge. Carnies are
executed at the height of the storeys. The coats of arms of the
Hanseatic branches of Bruges, Novgorod, London and Bergen are on
Renaissance shields on the cornice above the ground floor, and the
cornice above the first floor is decorated with lion heads and
mascarons. On the second floor there is a goods hatch designed as a
rusticated portal.
Other stone sculptures adorning the building
were also created. The design of the portal with lion heads and
rusticated pilasters is particularly noteworthy. The decorations are
designed in the style of Dutch Mannerism. The bas-reliefs in the window
gables on the ground floor show portraits of the Polish royal couple
Sigismund III. Vasa and Anna of Austria. Between the windows of the
first floor there are two other reliefs depicting knights armed with
lances with closed visors at a tournament. They bear the Low German
inscriptions HELF GODT ALLEZEIDT and GODT IST MEIN HULF in the Gothic
style and are attributed to Arent Passer.
Reliefs are arranged on
both sides of the goods hatch, which represent the female symbolic
figures Pax and Justitia. Above is another relief with an image of a
blessing Jesus Christ. The gable is crowned by a massive Karnies.
The building on the right has been redesigned in a similar style
only on the ground floor. The coats of arms of two Revaler families can
be found on its facade, as well as a representation of Saint George in
the gable. Otherwise, with large floor hatches and jibs, it still has
the outward appearance of a granary.
A large hall, the so-called
brother hall, was set up on the upper floor in the left part. The
Brothers' Hall was then decorated with life-size portraits showing
German, Swedish and Russian rulers acting as sovereigns of Estonia and
Reval respectively. There were portraits from the Roman-German Emperor
Charles V to the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. There was also an
epitaph for the ten Blackheads who fell on September 11, 1560 in the
Brothers' Hall. This is the oldest surviving town view of Reval. The
hall on the ground floor is called Dornste, which means something like a
heated room. Cultural events took place in the house, in particular it
was the venue for festivals of the Baltic Germans in Reval.
Berent Geistmann created the bezel carvings in 1604. The colored front
door itself was made in the 1640s. The carvings above the door show the
head of Mauritius.
Another major renovation took place in 1908,
but this only affected the interior. It was directed by the architect
Wilhelm Neumann. In this context, the furnishings dating back to the
16th century were removed and replaced by Neo-Renaissance style
furnishings.
On November 30, 1918, Alfred Rosenberg, later a
leading ideologue of the NSDAP, gave a speech in the rented large hall
of the House of the Blackheads on what he called the Jewish question.
The character of the Blackheads as an association of merchants
declined over time. In 1895 it was dissolved as a professional
organization. There was a corps of Blackheads, which was supplemented by
the election of unmarried merchants, although they no longer had to
resign if they got married. The corps rented the rooms on the ground
floor of the house to the secular Blackheads Club, which existed until
1940. The upper rooms remained in the use of the corps, where in
particular the valuables of the Blackheads were kept. After the Second
World War, the house was a socialist culture and youth center. Period
furniture belonging to the brotherhood and parade portraits went to the
city museum, silver cups went to the art museum.
The house was
registered as a monument on April 15, 1997 and is registered under
number 3040 in the Estonian Register of Monuments.