Execution sites
· Vanalinn
Tallinn Executioner’s House
The town executioner was associated with the edge of old Tallinn, but identifying one present-day house requires caution.
The executioner performed a necessary yet despised role in the town’s system of justice. His place of residence was therefore often imagined near the wall, at the edge of respectable urban life. Locating this story around Rüütli 24 does not establish that today’s numbered building is the medieval house. Street numbers, buildings and oral traditions have all changed. The place points to how a city kept the agent of its punishments at a social distance.
Practical information
Address: Rüütli 24 piirkond
Explore the Rüütli 24 area from the public street. Treat claims about a specific surviving executioner’s house with caution.