Kiek in de Kök Museum

Kiek in de Kök is a nickname that comes from Low German which means "peek into the kitchen."  Towers that were built to be part of a town's fortifications were sometimes called "Kiek in de Kök" because observers in the towers had the advantage of being able to see into the kitchens of the townspeople.  This was a common name for towers, even though they were not all built in Germany.  Tallinn has a big one, and inside is a museum with six levels.  The stairs to each level are steep and narrow and everything is in stone.  Of course there are no railings or elevators.  OSHA would have a field day.  But this is Estonia, and it has a rich history of centuries filled with a people trying to establish themselves on the land.  Originally built in the 1470's as a lookout for intruders, it is about 125 feet high and the walls are 13 feet thick.  There are 27 embrasures for cannons and 30 for handguns.  The museum inside shows various military armament and also a room dedicated to ancient publications of hymnals.  The pictures will have to speak for themselves.

Kiek in de Kök

Old Cannon

Larger Cannon

A worker gathers bodies left from the plague

Diorama of the original fortifications 

Hymnal collection

A view to the West

A view to the East

Classic view of Tallinn

No tower is complete without a stretching rack

Underground Tunnels of the Bastions

Adjacent to Kiek in de Kök is the bastion underground tunnels.  In the 17th century, when the Swedes were running things, they built ingenious underground passageways that would allow them to fire upon intruders from both flanks.  They could move munitions and soldiers to different positions under the protection of the stone tunnels and unload their weapons without giving away their position.  Over the centuries, the tunnels have been used for other than military reasons.  Russia's Catherine the Great imprisoned a monk here who had been an outspoken critic of hers.  Probably because of what she did to the monasteries and the monks. Eventually, she refused him food and he died there. During WWII, it was used by the German military.  In the 80's, young musicians would play their music down below so as to not infuriate their Soviet occupiers.  They were used also as potential fallout shelters during the cold war.  They were outfitted with air filters and water.  Vagrants lived there for many years before they were all removed.

Bastion tunnel

Stepping down into history

Air filters for nuclear fallout

One of many staging rooms underneath

This was where the "underground" music played