Tallinn is one of the oldest cities in the region of the Baltic Sea. Tallinn was first mentioned in historical documents in 1154, when Arabian geographer Al Idris put a town called Kolõvan on his map.

Tallinn has had several names: Lindanisa, Kolõvan, Reval and finally Tallinn. Tallinn got its rights to function as a town from Lübeck in 1248 and became a member of the Hanseatic League.

Medieval Tallinn was divided into two separated parts – lower-town and upper-town called Toompea. As the relations between two parts were not always friendly, the connecting road between lower-town and Toompea was secured by a defence wall and gate-towers. At nights the gates were closed and there was no connection from lower-town to Toompea and vice versa. The wall was also called a Hostility Wall or the Wall of Mistrust. In lower-town, mainly merchants and craftsmen lived by the town-rights of Lübeck. Toompea was a centre of the governing power. There lived clergy and local nobility. Officially the two towns were united in 1889.