The Square of towers
It is as if each day we have a wonderful parade of the towers of the city wall.
The incredible spectacle, counting from the Nunne Street or from the south side, begins with the Nun’s Tower, followed by the Sauna Tower and then the Golden Leg Tower, the Tower Behind the Nuns and the Loewenschede Tower … then there is a moment to take a breath and the spectacle disappears briefly above the Lippe Tower, an entrance into the Old Town. This incredible view and most magnificent spectacle, continues with the Ropehill Tower, then a short pause, towards the entrance to Suurtüki Street, after which the grande finale comes into view, the Plate and Epping Towers, and the tower behind Grusbeke.
An amazing sight!
The green area, the Nun’s Paddock, belonged to the St. Michael Convent during the Middle Ages. The great Finlandia Bastion was supposed to be built here 300 years ago, when earth was piled up around the city wall, to create fortifications against cannon fire. Plans for 11 bastions to surround the city wall were drawn up, but in the end only three were completed. The closest to here, was the Skoone Bastion, now called the Coastal Gate Hill. A large amount of earth was piled up against the city wall, and became known as the Palmquist Redoubt. The earthen mounds were leveled around the middle of the 19th century and a green space was formed first as a rentable meadow and at the end of the 19th century, this was turned into the exhibition area of the Agricultural Association. The area was filled with large wooden exhibition halls, of which the largest, the Rotund, was destroyed by a fire in 1933. The former exhibition space was then converted into a park.
After the war, from 1946 to 1961 this area was called Stalingrad Square. The sculpture of the revolutionary and Chairman of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mihhail Kalinin could be seen here, in the years 1950-1990, against the backdrop of the medieval towers and city wall. In recent years this area, in the proximity of the walls, has been used as the grounds for an international floral festival.