Old Admiralty Harbour
Find the viewpoint and reveal the hidden layer of old Tallinn harbour.
The story
Where yachts sit on calm water today, there was once noise: workshops, warehouses, wooden quays, steam pumps, and the smell of tar and wet wood. Two centuries ago this waterfront was the working machinery of Tallinn's port.
Ships were repaired here, piles were driven into the seabed, wagons carried sand along temporary rails while the harbour expanded around them.
A submarine before submarines
The strangest trace of this place isn't a ship. In the mid-19th century, a wooden submarine built in the Admiralty workshops was tested right here in Tallinn harbour — human-powered, able to dive only a couple of metres, and at the time about as close to science fiction as the city ever got.
Stand by the water with the app and watch the hidden port machinery return to the modern marina.
Quick facts
- •The old Admiralty basin was a working repair-and-cargo harbour, not a marina.
- •Steam engines pumped water as the harbour was expanded.
- •A human-powered wooden submarine was tested here in the mid-1800s.
Open Old Admiralty Harbour in WanderTrails
Walk to the real viewpoint, raise your camera, align the guide with today's view — and watch the past appear over the present, with the full audio story in English, Estonian, or Russian.
