Presenting Yourself. The Tallinn Citizen and Their Dwelling during Early Modern Period (in Estonian)

The Modern Tallinn Old Town is usually described as a town with medieval architecture. When taking a closer look one might notice that the buildings with gothic facades the once single-family dwellings are not really prevalent in the cityscape. Furthermore, the notion of the few centuries following Middle Ages in Reval were lacking in architecture and art. Actually, the dwellings changed drastically after the golden era of the Hansa Union in the 15th century Tallinn: New windows were carved into the pointed gables and modern colourful details were added, and several rich townsmen remodelled their houses radically by losing the gables entirely and making the roofs slant towards the street. The biggest visual changes made in the 16th 18th century happened to the courtyards of the buildings and the interior of the dwellings: the living quarters were made wider by adding rooms towards the street and the courtyard and by making use of the space used as storage rooms until then, the entire living space became more functionally bounded, the rooms became lighter, more comfortable, beautiful and more richly furnished. Thus, the city was constantly changing through its buildings, even though the street fabric largely remained the same. Were the Tallinn dwellings restructured during the first centuries of the early modern period, why and how, are the main focus points of the book Presenting Yourself. The Tallinn Citizen and Their Dwelling during Early Modern Period. Why and how did the owners have their building walls embellished with stone carvings and paintings, and when and how did the white-pillared order architecture from antiquity make its way to Tallinn? How did the old and new architecture and art forms relate to each other, and why did the owners feel the need to constantly re-embellish and embellish their houses? Why did they need to change the plan of the dwelling as well and how was it done? What did the entire family, including the helping staff, do it those rooms? What kind of furniture and decorations did they get and why did they spend money on this? What did they paint on the ceilings and walls, and why? How and where did they gain the knowledge and pressure to execute the visual changes? One of the most important conclusions of the research is that the wealthy Tallinn citizen, either a merchant or a nobleman, was an international man , who developed and embellished his home because it was a matter of standing, which during the early modern period included paying attention and money to the exterior things.