Tallinn
capital and most populous city of Estonia
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. Located on a bay in northern Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of 452,563 as of 2026, making it the third most-populous city in the Baltics. As of 2024, the population of the Tallinn metropolitan area is estimated at 646,315. Tallinn is the main governmental, financial, industrial, and cultural centre of Estonia. It is located 187 kilometres (116 mi) northwest of the country's second largest city, Tartu, however, only 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It is also 320 kilometres (200 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Riga, Latvia, and 380 kilometres (240 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden. From the 13th century until the first half of the 20th century, Tallinn was known in most of the world by variants of its other historical name, Reval.
Reval (Tallinn) received Lübeck city rights in 1248; however, the earliest evidence of human settlement in the area dates back almost 5,000 years. The medieval indigenous inhabitants of present-day Tallinn and northern Estonia were among the last "pagan" peoples in Europe to be Christianised during the papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 13th century.
The first recorded claim to the area was made by Denmark after a successful raid in 1219 led by King Valdemar II, followed by a period of alternating Scandinavian and Teutonic rulers.
The public source identifies “Tallinn” as capital and most populous city of Estonia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tallinn, capital and most.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tallinn”, the useful work is to connect “capital and most populous city of Estonia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1770. VIAF identifies the subject as 160461922. The Library of Congress control number is n79065462. Authority coordinates are 59.437, 24.745. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026, 2024, 1248 and 1219.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Tallinn”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Tallinn primary sources, Tallinn archive and Tallinn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Tallinn”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Tallinn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.