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Although some old have been Plan Structure individually researched, the differences in the development of their plan structures Typology of Old have not been properly examined, nor are there any generalisations about the Estonian Towns patterns of their shaping and changes in as a whole, or in the in the 13th–17th context. There are few comparisons of medieval towns with Estonia, although Centuries Gerhard Eimer’s thorough work (1961) on the Swedish era urban building was later supplemented by Nils Ahlberg, Lilian Hansar who included Estonian towns as well. The following offers a short overview Summary of towns in the medieval, renaissance and periods in Estonia and the The current article examines the Baltic Sea region, because the specific first two significant stages in the features of an urban type have developed building history of old Estonian in a concrete situation and are only towns – the Middle Ages and the ‘Swedish era’ – more precisely the understandable in a historical perspective. emergence and development of urban structures at that time. As only a few constructions forming building Medieval structures have survived from both We cannot use one single theory to tackle periods, the article focuses on an analysis of plan structures, at the medieval towns – their emergence and same time systematising historical development occurred as a result of many maps, compiling a plan typology and factors. Although every town is individual, the relevant street schemes. The aim some general principles of formation of this research is to delineate the can still be pointed out. The places where singular plan pattern of each heritage European medieval towns emerged were, conservation area of an old town, highlighting the need to protect it, as a rule, trade route junctures or other not just the visible parts but also the favourable trading locations by water, and layers buried under cultural strata. sometimes ancient destroyed centres. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, the number of towns in increased from 40 to 3000. There were 70 medieval towns within the current borders of , of which 60 have survived, and 20 still have their medieval plan. The majority of Swedish towns emerged in the 13th–15th centuries, and the oldest date from the turn of the 10th–11th centuries (Sigtuna, Lund, Helsingborg, Skara and ). has six towns Plan Structure Typology of Old Estonian Towns in the 13th–17th Centuries 73 of medieval origin (, Viiburi, Renaissance and baroque towns , Ulvia, Rauma and Naantali). The terrestrial models of the renaissance Considering local circumstances, the ideal town as an expression of a cosmic reasons why medieval towns emerged in picture of the world, which supposedly the Estonian territory could be interpreted constituted preconditions of an ideal in various ways. According to today’s society, started in 15th century Italy. prevailing opinion, there were no towns Renaissance towns have been regarded here, as they were defined in the medieval as art, which, in addition to architecture, era, at the end of ancient times, although was also expressed in the plan patterns settlement sites (Hakelwerk) probably designed by the planners, although the existed near larger strongholds, and geometric-symmetrical plans were largely Wiek-type settlements by the waterways. quite utopian. Such regular towns of ideal Among the numerous ancient Estonian clarity and order have been associated, strongholds, the conquerors built a stone contrary to the initial idea of democracy, castle only on or near seven of their sites. with power and colonisation. They Of about one hundred medieval stone sprang up in Swedish-ruled provinces, castles, 13 developed into towns. In Estonia, including Estonia (1629–1710). Sweden a town is considered medieval if it received was one of the few countries in Europe its town rights in the 13th–14th centuries: where such a large number of new towns (Reval 1248), Old-Pärnu (Pernau were built that followed the principles 1251), (Dorpat mid-13th c), of a renaissance-era ideal town. Thirty (Hapsal 1279), (Fellin 1283), new towns were constructed in today’s (Wittenstein 1291, later Weissenstein), Swedish area, 15 were relocated, and all old (Wesenberg 1302), New-Pärnu towns had to be renovated. In the regions (Perona 1318) and (Nerva 1345). At controlled by large powers, renovations the end of the 16th century, were planned in 450 places and over 600 (Arensburg 1563) and Valga (Walk 1583) plans were drawn up. Simultaneously received their town rights. (Leal with renovating the towns, Swedish stronghold 1238) was a medieval urban strongholds and urban fortifications were settlement as well. They are all hereby modernised. By 1653, 28 towns in Finland examined as examples of the emergence had been built or renovated according and development of urban settlement and to regular plans (gridiron plans). heritage conservation areas, except for In Sweden and Finland this period left Tallinn, as it is the most researched town. a strong imprint on the hearts of medieval towns, whereas in Estonia the renovation was limited to fortifying strategically significant towns and modernising strongholds in Tallinn, Narva, Tartu, Pärnu and Kuressaare; towns were extended only in Pärnu and Narva. The development of most of the other small towns halted. lilian hansar 74

Starting points of the urban scheme, which emphasised the grandeur plan typology of the town hall at, or in the middle of, On the whole, towns are born organically the market square; the church(es) were or according to plans, expressed in their located separately in a smaller square. In irregular or regular plan structures. the 15th century, Erik XIII, King of Sweden, According to the prevailing idea, medieval actively interfered in urban construction. towns were largely self-emerging, although In creating a new type of town, he used planning should be considered as well. old German towns as a model, stressing Medieval German towns were urban fortifications and the importance structured according to streets, of the central position of the church. squares and town walls, plus adjoining Having thoroughly examined the strongholds. Hans Planitz examines Swedish town plans, Ahlberg found similar the location of the market square and features in their patterns and distinguished changes in its shape and function. He the following plan schemes in medieval gives examples from the pre-medieval towns: one long street, the main street town period in Wiek-type settlements that running at an angle to the coast, a street later developed into towns. The 11th–12th network parallel to the coast, crossroad century towns initially had typical oblong towns, a fishbone pattern, and regular plan square markets next to commercial streets. patterns. Renaissance and baroque urban Oval-shaped towns emerged at road construction is characterised by regular junctions, with the main market in the ideal towns with gridiron and radial plans centre. Other markets could be triangular and by the modernisation of fortifications. or keel-shaped. The prevailing regular The model for the following plan structure street scheme in the second half of the 12th typology of Estonian towns is mainly the century had a quadrangular market square work of Ahlberg, as he systematically in the town centre. In the 13th century this analysed the historical plans and pointed scheme spread to German-occupied areas. out the singularity of the plan patterns. Regularity in the street scheme was usually evident in new towns surrounded by walls. Eimer’s analysis also focuses on Types of medieval town plans developments caused by the location of The first maps of Estonian towns with the squares, market places, churches streets on them mainly date from the and town halls that shaped medieval second half of the 17th century. These Swedish towns, influenced by European maps make it possible to draw conclusions models. The earlier towns sprang up as about medieval plan schemes, as in the long streets by trading routes. A typical course of a few centuries nothing much town of the 12th century had an elongated changed in these towns. The street network triangular square. The norm in the is always older than the buildings. mid-13th century central square was the (1) A town with one long street is scheme church–market–town hall, and oblong, built along the one dominant the big quadrangular town square had to main street. The oldest Estonian urban have fixed proportions and dimensions. settlement with such a plan scheme In the 14th century, examples existed is Lihula, located by a large road that in the German regular colonial town probably already existed in antiquity and Plan Structure Typology of Old Estonian Towns in the 13th–17th Centuries 75 was fully established in the Middle Ages. castle, which controlled the harbour by The oldest plan of the Lihula Episcopal Kuressaare Bay. The earlier town centre castle and small town dating from 1683, was also located in the area close to compiled by Samuel Waxelberg, shows the castle. Despite this, the Kuressaare the castle, the more important buildings plan structure is irregular; besides the and the borders of the built-up area. castle and the harbour, its development The entire small town was situated by was influenced by natural conditions, the Tallinn–Virtsu road, between the the manor lands around the town, and present Penijõe Road and Oja Street. the new location of the town centre. The building structure in Lihula is Even more clearly than in Kuressaare, still dominated by a general oblong the streets in Haapsalu start from the shape running along one long street. market square near the Episcopal castle (2) Rakvere has a T-shaped street and run towards the sea. The streets are scheme, although the north-south Pikk marked on the 1686 Waxelberg plan. Street is dominant. It is crossed by the axis Anton Pärn’s thorough research of urban of today’s Kreutzwald and Tallinn Streets, construction in Haapsalu, together with which was important for long-distance the archaeological evidence, seems to traffic. In the area where the streets cross, prove that an urban settlement existed the archaeologists have found settlement there at least in the mid-13th century. On traces from antiquity, and the remains the basis of archaeological excavations, the of wooden buildings from the 12th–13th location of the circular wall, and its five centuries. Waxelberg’s 1683 plan marks gates that marked the town contour until the castle buildings, the wall around them the , has been reconstructed. and the above-mentioned streets. In the It is additionally concluded that the panorama drawing illustrating the map, medieval street scheme, influenced by the the buildings are chiefly located along relief, the existing roads and the location Pikk Street. Although Rakvere was burnt of the castle, has largely survived today. down during the , we (4) The Y-type street scheme can be can nevertheless assume that the streets seen in Valga, which developed in the in the older part of the town are at least place where the important Old Livonian medieval, whereas the direction of Pikk trade and war routes diverged. The battles and Tallinn Streets is probably ancient. sweeping across the town and its repeated (3) An example of an Estonian town destruction are among the reasons why where the main street is made up of the town’s earlier building history is only roads leading to the port is, with certain reflected in the street scheme. The current reservations, Kuressaare. In the initial triangular central square at the divergence stage of the street network, the street point may have been the market square of leading to the castle and the sea was not a medieval settlement. This is confirmed the later main street Lossi, but the earlier by Johan Holmberg’s plan dating from streets of Pikk and Tolli, which joined the 1683 and archaeological excavations Episcopal castle with the territories of in the district by the central square. the in western . (5) Examples of the regular plan The principal reason why the streets ran pattern are Viljandi, Paide and Tartu. towards the coast was the location of the In medieval Estonian towns, the regular lilian hansar 76

plans were enhanced by building new excellent overview of the medieval town strongholds and adjoining towns is evident in the 1640s plan, with a street surrounded by fortified walls. network which aimed to make the medieval There exist several reconstructions street scheme regular. The Swedish-era of Viljandi’s medieval regular plan, of renovation plans derived from the need to which Kaur Alttoa’s version has been modernise the town fortifications, most of the most accepted over the last decade. which was never realised – the town wall The main axis of the regular urban was surrounded with bastions, best seen in plan with a symmetrical street scheme Erik Dahlberg’s plans from 1696 and 1697. was Lossi Street, crossed by alleys. The Swedish-era plans have been localised in town church stood on the eastern side the contemporary street network, which of the main rectangular square by Lossi enables us to claim that, until the end Street. The trapezoid shape of the town of the 17th century, the medieval regular surrounded by walls and an occasional street structure survived, and although irregularity in its street scheme may have older buildings have been destroyed, been influenced by earlier directions of the structure is still visible today. the roads. As a result of archaeological excavations and the examination of the street paving, it is assumed that the street Urban plan types in the network in Viljandi in the 14th century at Swedish era the latest is that which survives today. The following examines the town plan Medieval Paide is depicted on several types in Narva and Pärnu, which spread copper engravings as having regular from Sweden to Estonia in the 17th planning, buildings and a centrally century. An example of the unrealised located main square, surrounded by a ideal town plan is Kuressaare. stone wall with bastions and a moat. As (6) On gridiron plans, parallel crossing there is no archaeological data on the streets run through the entire town. The town’s fortifications, the engravings could term is used as a general name (Swedish well be nothing more than someone’s rutnätsplan, Finnish ruutukaava, and imagination. The 1683 Waxelberg town English gridiron plan), as both square and plan marks the street scheme, mainly rectangular urban districts were planned. regular, as the crossing streets start on The medieval regular-plan Narva the quadrangular central square. Such was supposed to become the second clear regularity in the street scheme residence of the Swedish throne. The most cannot be haphazard, and this suggests ambitious renovation plans compiled that in the planned fortified town only over forty years were those of Georg von the streets were successfully finished. Schwengell and Johan von Rodenburg, The development of the regular town from 1645 and 1647. They maintained the plan in Tartu was influenced by its earlier medieval town, but wanted to build an settlement and roads, as well as by the adjacent much bigger urban district with possible planning in connection with the a regular gridiron plan and surrounded by building of the town wall, although unlike a defensive wall. Narva was modernised the colonial town scheme the market according to Dahlberg’s plan of 1686, square is not located in the town centre. An which marked the medieval urban district Plan Structure Typology of Old Estonian Towns in the 13th–17th Centuries 77 as well as the new districts with streets Conclusion crossing at right angles, where the street The following types of plans can be directions were connected with the old distinguished in medieval old towns: one ones. The town plan survived almost long street (Lihula), a T-shaped street unchanged for over 300 years, proved by scheme with one dominant long street the Swedish-era streets on the map dating (Rakvere), streets running towards a from 1936. Narva’s historical buildings body of water (Haapsalu and Kuressaare), were destroyed in WW II, and the town a Y-shaped street scheme at a road plan structure has changed quite a bit. junction (Valga), a regular plan (Paide, The 17th century maps of medieval Viljandi, Pärnu, Tartu and Narva) and Pärnu are quite revealing, as the earlier an irregular plan pattern (Tallinn and street scheme is marked on most maps, Kuressaare). Unlike Sweden, Estonian showing how the planned to fortified towns preferred regular plan renovate the castle and the town. The patterns. This probably indicates some clearest information about the old and sort of planning typical of German the new urban districts is provided in colonial towns. Traces of ancient roads Paul von Essen’s plan from 1696, which have survived in the town plans of Lihula, distinguishes the medieval street network Rakvere and Valga. They are also vaguely and a regular gridiron plan in the south- discernible in Tartu and Viljandi, and east, surrounded by earthworks with perhaps in Paide. All Estonian medieval bastions. It is as an excellent example of towns sprang up near strongholds. the Swedish-era planning, which follows The exception is Valga. Medieval street the principles of an ideal town and solves structure seems to have survived well the complicated task of uniting the in Tartu, Haapsalu, Kuressaare, Lihula, old and the new, thus creating a whole Rakvere, Viljandi, Paide, Valga, partly in with a symmetrical composition which Pärnu, and to a lesser extent in Narva. met the requirements of the time. Sweden focused on fortifying Although by the Swedish era the strategically important towns (Tallinn, structure of Kuressaare’s town plan was Narva, Tartu, Pärnu and Kuressaare). on the whole fully established within A regular gridiron plan was dominant today’s heritage conservation area, in urban planning (Narva and Pärnu). Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie Nicodemus A project of an ideal town existed for commissioned Tessin to produce a Kuressaare, which was never realised. project for reconstructing the castle and Bigger changes took place in expanding the town. Tessin’s 1652 plan connects medieval towns (Pärnu and Narva), and the old castle to the ideal town with although the new plans did not drastically its symmetrical and orthogonal plan, alter the medieval plan structures, the surrounded by a defensive wall and a regular gridiron plans were connected moat. Kuressaare’s unrealised plan of the with the existing street schemes. ideal town was innovative both in the Baltic region and throughout Sweden. Translated by Tiina Randviir proof-read by Richard Adang