Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and most populous 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 and administratively lies in Harju County. 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, 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. Due to the strategic location by the sea, its port became a significant trade hub, especially in the 14th to 16th centuries, when Tallinn grew in importance as the northernmost member city of the Hanseatic League. Tallinn Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2012, Tallinn had the highest number of startup companies (per capita) among all capitals and larger cities in Europe. Tallinn is the birthplace of many international high-technology companies, including Bolt and Skype. The city is home to the headquarters of the European Union's IT agency, and to the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. In 2007, Tallinn was listed among the top-10 digital cities in the world, and in 2022, Tallinn was listed among the top-10 "medium-sized European cities of the future".