Tallinn Patarei Barracks
	Robert Treufeldt

	Tallinn as a fortified town was known in the Middle Ages for the remarkable dimensions of its town wall, the height and thickness of which was almost unseen elsewhere in Northern Europe. The spread of firearms from the 15th cen tury onwards made it necessary to build various fortifications but they were always no more than supplements to the wall. In the Middle Ages there probably were buildings away from the town wall to protect the harbour. Fortifications located outside town were planned not earlier than in the late 17th century, when Swedish rule was nearing its end. One of the few completed buildings was the earthworks on the north-western coast of the town where the borders of three town parts - Kalamaja, Köismägi and Kalarand - ran together. It was known as Esthonian Battery (named by former duchy; situated in the northern part of nowadays Estonia). After Tallinn surrendered in 1710 in the Swedish-Russian War, the Russians seriously undertook the fortification of the town - after all, the war was still going on. A new and bigger battery was constructed on the coast instead of the previous Swedish one. After the reconstruction its name changed to Western Battery. In the course of the subsequent one hundred years, not much was done there. Even the grand-scale Tallinn defence plans in 1791 of the Dutchman Jacob Eduard de Witte who served the Russian empire, left the Western Battery (in Estonian: Läänepatarei) untouched, although elsewhere he suggested truly extensive reconstruction.
	Inspired by the Prussian example, Russia started preparing a huge network of fortresses - stone cannon buildings with additional earthworks. The time of sturdy earthen fortifications was drawing to a close. The new plans for Tallinn were produced in the early 19th century. At first, one cannon tower (in Estonian later known as the White Tower) was built in 1824 at the northwestern tip of island Väike-Paljassaar near Tallinn (in German: Klein-Carlos; now peninsula in town). Fortifications were also built elsewhere along Russia's Baltic Sea coast. On the island of Retusaari (in Russian: Kotlin) facing St Petersburg they were situated in the town of Kronstadt, on the island and even in the surrounding sea. A powerful fortress, Bomarsund, was established in Åland Islands on the western coast of Russian Empire. Its main fortress resembled the one planned for Tallinn. Four big forts were planned at the western side of Tallinn with a stone cannon house in the middle. The new fort built instead Western Battery was the most important that was supposed to protect both the continental and coastal front. This was the first fort to be built there. Alas, it was also the only of the four that was ever completed. The fort had two big stone buildings, earthworks, ditches and many other things. Due to the function of defence and accommodation of the main building, the whole complex was officially called Defence Barracks. After completing the fortress, ordinary people started to call them first Battery Barracks (in Estonian: Patarei kasarmud) and then simply Battery (Patarei).
	The building of the latter started in 1829. According to the plan, the whole complex was supposed to be ready in four years. Money and labour was not spared, at least at first. However, everything took longer than expected and the costs increased. The state had to pay huge sums to private individuals for their land. The main building was on the whole ready in 1837, followed by earthworks and one additional battery, which contained a smaller stone cannon house - caponier. This building is known as Mortar Battery (Mortiiripatarei). The name and purpose of this battery is a mystery to this day because it was not possible to use mortars there. The other parts of the battery - earthworks, ditch etc - have not survived. Only the caponier still exists. The cuneiform building - lunette - contained flats for the officers. Other rooms were later adapted for infirmary and for soldiers (bachelors) or cadets (family men). The ground floor of the coastal gorge building had a bakery and kitchens. The latrines were in the half-round towers of the outer side of the building and there was water supply in the direct sense - all the ordure went directly into the sea... The buildings accommodated altogether about 2000 people. The whole complex was completed in 1840. The reconstruction started almost at the same time. New buildings revealed grave shortcomings. They had been established in a place rich in springs. The walls therefore gathered moisture and began to drip.
	Because of deteriorating living conditions it was seriously considered whether the complex should be abandoned, demolished and something new built instead. The situation eased only after 1869 when the cannon embrasures of the building were reshaped into windows so that the rooms could be properly aired and most of the moisture eliminated. A major problem at first was insufficient drinking water. However, in 1847 water was found and the well was provided with a curb and pavilion. The vapours of cooking on the ground floor greatly damaged the weapons. Various protections were designed in the weaponry rooms, but it was only in 1899 when a new bakery was built beside the barracks and the cooking equipment taken out of the rooms. In the course of the Crimean War, in august 1854, the Anglo-French fleet quickly and efficiently conquered all the parts of the Åland fortress. The Russians abandoned all smaller forts stocked by sea route and supplemented the land-supported forts, including Tallinn. It was probably the formidable reputation of the Russian infantry that saved the barracks from attacks from the sea and subsequent destruction. After the Crimean War, Tallinn was struck off the list of fortified towns and the special defence barracks became ordinary barracks. In 1892 the lunette building was increased to three storeys, and a Russian Orthodox church was established in one second-floor casemate in a gorge building. During the Estonian War of Independence (1918-20) due to a considerable shortage of prisons, the barracks underwent changes - transforming into a prison started in 1919.
	The biggest problem in the new prison was the insufficient employment of the prisoners - the workshops were small and provided occupation for only a part of the inmates. Only prisoners with minor offences could be allowed to the fields, road or amelioration works. About half the inmates at Patarei were idle, mostly those charged with a serious offence. The prison was extended - a building with 48 solitary cells was completed in 1932 in the eastern side of the gorge building (later known as house for sentenced to death and lifers). The former lunette wings were bound with a building that was ready in 1934. This accommodated 500 inmates. The prisoners built these houses of limestone (concrete blocks and roof tiles were also made by them). A slice of the Defence Battery of that time has survived elsewhere in Tallinn. To construct a new building, the old well was demolished 1934 and the granite blocks of the curb were left lying around. (At the same time the former exhibition square was being reconstructed into a park and the sculptor Juhan Raudsepp made a new sculpture to the park.) The prison almost emptied in 1938 in connection with the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. The extensive amnesty freed many prisoners, including most political prisoners. By the coup d'état in 1940 there were only few non-political inmates, who were set free with the help of Soviet armoured cars. The prison life continued both during the German and the new Soviet occupation, only now the number of inmates had grown too big for the old building.
	There are no official records of the later life and changes in the prison. Approximately in the 1970s, central heating was installed and the close-stool replaced with Turkish toilet. Before the yachting regatta in Tallinn during the Moscow Olympics in 1980, steel ribbing was attached to the windows facing the sea to prevent the sailing foreigners from catching sight of any prisoners. After the falling of the Soviet regime in 1991, plans to close down the totally outdated central prison emerged at once. Several ideas were presented, eg selling the old houses, establishing a hotel there and building three new, chambersystem prisons instead. Alas, that plan never materialised. Before the sewage of the whole complex was connected with the main cleaning system of the city just five years ago, wastewater was conducted directly to the coastal sea. It was suggested in the early 2000s to give the Patarei buildings to the Estonian Academy of Arts who could have moved all its activities there. By the end of 2002 the prison had already moved out, only the infirmary still stayed on. At that time there were five well preserved former prisons in Europe, and their reviving was a significant cultural event. Only one of them had been a coastal fortress like Patarei. The Academy would have solved its spatial problems and faced a considerable challenge - to bring a significant architectural monument back to life. Unfortunately, it was a bad timing for the Academy: the new government clearly expressed its doubts about the whole idea. A scandal broke out in connection with the finances of one private college and the idea of subsidising universities was less and less appealing. The building of a new central prison hospital did not go too smoothly either. A good idea that would have considerably enlivened the entire area and opened up the town to the sea came to nothing once again. The prison hospital moved out in 2005 and a temporary prison museum now operates in the huge building. No future visions that would consider the buildings' past as a coastal fortress and prison have so far emerged. Robert Treufeldt (1965), art historian, expert in fortification architecture. Member of Castellum devoted to researching and maintaining fortification architecture. See www.hot.ee/castellum
	| Estonian Art 2/05 (17) | Published by the Estonian Institute 2005 | ISSN 1406-5711 (Online) | ISSN 1406-3549 (Printed version) | einst@einst.ee | tel: (372) 631 43 55 | fax: (372) 631 43 56 |