Tallinn Trip – Fat Margaret Museum (Oldest Cobblestone Pavement in Tallinn)

This is the sort of random stuff that appeals to me and as a quick backdrop to this, the museum is built in an old building which has some historic interiors. And this seventeenth century cobblestone pavement was at ground level in what is described as the “frontal fortification zone”. The museum notes that this is “probably the oldest cobblestone preserved cobblestone pavement in Tallinn, which is stacked so as to form a rainwater drain”. There were hardly any archaeological finds when this area was excavated, the information board said that “order prevailed in the military site and the courtyard was kept clean”.

This whole thing only makes sense to someone not there by looking at https://arheoloogia.ee/ave2019/AVE2019_15_Reppo-Kadakas.pdf, the second page of that document (noted 178 at the top), this pavement is the uppermost cobblestone pavement in the bottom right of the plan. There’s a photo of the pavement on page 7 (noted 183) when it was being excavated. It’s all been neatly and carefully incorporated into the museum.

More of the old structures.

A part of the old city wall.

A drainage channel for sewage and rainwater, dating to the seventeenth century.

I’m conscious that I must have reached a certain age where I find inspecting old brickwork to be something notable, but I’m more into moss covered castles than modern art museums. You know where you are with old stones…..