Moments from Kalamaja

Kalamaja, a formerly working-class fishing and factory district just north of Tallinn's medieval Old Town, spent decades as one of the city's more overlooked corners before its wooden Baltic-German-era houses and abandoned Soviet-period factory buildings began drawing artists and designers priced out of the center. The neighborhood's centerpiece is Telliskivi Creative City, a former industrial complex of factory buildings converted into studios, galleries, concept stores, and street art-covered courtyards, now one of the most concentrated creative districts in the Baltics.

Wooden Kalamaja itself is worth walking beyond Telliskivi's gates, the surrounding streets of pastel-painted wooden houses have their own smaller studios and murals tucked between residential buildings that most visitors, focused on the main creative complex, walk straight past. Go on a weekday if you want a quieter, less touristed version of the district, Telliskivi in particular gets considerably busier on weekends when its food stalls and markets draw crowds well beyond anyone specifically there for the art.