Juske says Pelgulinn sheltered Toompea thugs

People from Toompea may have sought refuge in Pelgulinn under the protection of Lübeck city law, Jaak Juske, curator of an exhibition on the district’s history at the Kalamaja Museum, told ERR’s cultural programme Delta.

Juske said creating the exhibition had been one of his longstanding ambitions. His family has lived in the area for 18 years, while his ancestors moved to Pelgulinn at the beginning of the 20th century.

Pelgulinn is a district of Tallinn’s North Tallinn district. It covers a large area extending from Paldiski Road and the former hippodrome area towards Ehte Street and includes the Kopli freight station. It borders Kalamaja and Kelmiküla, with Kopli Street forming part of the boundary with Kalamaja.

More than 15,000 people live in Pelgulinn, giving it a population roughly comparable to that of Viljandi or Rakvere, Juske said.

For most of Tallinn’s eight-century history, the city was divided into the Lower Town, where Lübeck city law applied, and Toompea, the Upper Town, where land and knightly law applied. The old suburbs immediately bordering Toompea, including Tõnismäe and Kassisaba, followed separate Toompea law.

Most of Pelgulinn belonged to Tallinn and was therefore subject to Lübeck city law. Juske said the district’s name was clearly linked to the search for refuge and suggested that people may have fled there during conflicts in the city. He added that Toompea thugs may also have hidden in Pelgulinn because Toompea law did not apply there.

Although Pelgulinn has received less attention recently than neighbouring Kalamaja, Juske described it as a cohesive district shaped by every period of the past 160 years. He said the area had many long-term residents who preserved its heritage and a strong community movement. The Pelgulinn Society is one of the oldest and most active neighbourhood associations in modern Estonia, he said.

The exhibition presents Pelgulinn’s history through people’s stories and old photographs. The district began developing as a residential area after Tallinn became a railway city in 1870. Before that, it was mainly a coastal meadow with some woodland, and its oldest buildings date from the end of the 19th century.