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Already when entering, this place plays with what a museum should look like: you enter into a café. The exhibition rooms are diverse, as they make use of old industrial space. The shows are prepared by artists, hence the place builds a bridge between the upcoming and the established scene.
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A fine example of Soviet Brutalist architecture designed by Raine Karp and Riina Altmäe and built for the 22nd Moscow Summer Olympic Games in 1980 for sailing events held in Tallinn. Scale the exterior of this crumbling monumental eulogy to mass culture and marvel at the fact that beneath its crumbling exterior lies a 5,000-seat amphitheatre (that last held a concert in 2008) and a 3,000-seat ice rink. It is closed to the public as negotiations regarding its redevelopment continue. It is maybe a last chance to see part of Tallinn's overlooked architectural heritage in its current form.
Fat Margaret
The Maritime Museum dates back to 1935 and is housed inside the largest of the Tallinn city wall towers, aptly named "Fat Margaret" (Paks Margareta). Visiting the museum allows one not only to see the potpourri of maritime-themed artifacts, but also the 16th-century cannon tower and experience the view from the cafe on its roof. While the museum is the original location of the Meremuuseum, you absolutely cannot miss their second location in the Seaplane Harbour, where the ships and airplanes are stored (see below). Next to the museum, facing the sea, is the Broken Line (Katkenud liin) monument to the 1994 MS Estonia shipwreck.
Oleviste kirik
Built in the 12th century. Today it is a Baptist church and probably the most visible landmark on the northern end of the Old Town. When Estonia was part of the Soviet Union the tower was used as a radio tower and a surveillance point.
Now the Interior Ministry and not generally open to the public, this is where the KGB detained and tortured suspected dissidents. A Soviet-era joke says that this was the tallest building in Estonia: even from the basement, you could see Siberia. Interrogations were indeed conducted in the basement and you can see even today how the windows were crudely bricked up with concrete to mute the sound.