Balti Jaama Market is located on the border of Kalamaja and Kelmiküla at Kopli 1, in the renovated limestone warehouses of Verner, dating back to the late 19th century.
On the site of today’s market, a mysterious home for the prematurely buried was opened in the second half of the 19th century, just before the construction of the railway. An eccentric doctor, Heinrichsen, was obsessed with the idea that Tallinn needed a home for people in a deathlike trance. At that time, Europe was full of chilling horror stories about people mistakenly buried alive and then waking up in their coffins. The doctor bequeathed his fortune to the city on the condition that a shelter would be built on the road leading to the Kopli cemetery for people in suspended animation, where they could be saved. Relatives could place their deceased there — perhaps they would awaken again. There was also to be a separate room with a few beds where the resurrected could calmly contemplate their future.
The city council was very skeptical about fulfilling this will, and it took about ten years to establish the institution. In 1865, a notice finally appeared in a local newspaper, announcing to all citizens the extraordinary opportunity at plot No. 3 behind Nunn Gate.
Unfortunately, the dead did not come back to life. Rumors soon spread in the city that the mistress of the institution did not let the beds stand empty in vain. Since there weren’t many patients, it turned into an inn where travelers could spend the night.
A few years after the completion of the Baltic Railway, the shadow home buildings were sold at auction. In the 1870s, three long limestone warehouses were built there, connected by railway sidings. These are first seen on the 1885 city map.
The story of the Baltic Railway began in 1862, when Estonia’s first railway project was submitted by the local nobility to the Russian Minister of Finance. They sought permission to build a line from St. Petersburg to Tallinn and Paldiski. After several refusals, permission was finally granted.
The main station of the Baltic Railway, Balti Station, was completed in 1870. The beautiful station building, designed by Otto Rudolf von Knüpffer, was opened on October 24 (November 5 in the new calendar). The stone walls of the tsarist-era station house are still preserved within the new station building opened in 1967.
During the March bombing of 1944, much of the Kotzebue Street area near the warehouses was destroyed, though the warehouses themselves suffered little damage. During the Soviet era, the city’s repair administration used them as central warehouses.
Together with Balti Station, the Baltic Railway Main Workshops were also opened in 1870 on the site of today’s Telliskivi Creative City. In 1873–1874, the workshops were expanded, and a six-bay locomotive depot and workshop were built, which have survived almost in their original form with later additions. The buildings were used as a locomotive depot, carriage repair shop, and workshop until the spring of 2015, before being converted into the Depoo Market. The railway tracks ordered from England in the 19th century still support the canopy over two wagons in DEPOO.
Balti Jaama Market itself was opened on October 1, 1993, on the site of the former Verner warehouses on Kopli Street. The market became a place of dubious reputation, yet still popular with locals — a hallmark of early capitalist Estonia.
The Market Today
By 2007, plans were already being made to replace the dilapidated market with a shopping center. Disputes arose over the height of the market building. However, it took nearly another decade before the outdated market finally began its renewal.
In January 2016, Astri Group began construction of a modern market hall on the site of the old Balti Jaama Market, preserving as much of the historic limestone buildings as possible. The cornerstone was laid on June 16 of the same year. Meanwhile, the market temporarily moved to the newly opened DEPOO Market at Telliskivi 62.
The renewed Balti Jaama Market officially opened its doors to the people of Tallinn on May 19, 2017.
Written by Jaak Juske.
