Why go
If you visit the interior, look beyond the large decorative scenes to the Tallinn coats of arms woven into the designs. The council commissioned the works in the sixteenth century, using the story of King Solomon to furnish its civic rooms. Their survival also connects the hall to the City Museum's collections.
The full story
In 1547 Tallinn's town council ordered wool tapestries and bench coverings from Enghien in the Netherlands. Their scenes draw on the story of King Solomon, while repeated Tallinn coats of arms identify the civic patron. Those details turn rich decoration into a statement about the council that commissioned it. The original textiles belong to Tallinn City Museum and are preserved as historic objects; copies were made for the Town Hall, including one for the Citizens' Hall. This distinction matters on a visit: the hall gives a sense of how the textiles worked in a civic interior, while the originals require conservation. Their later history is unusually eventful. A proposal to sell them in 1909 met public opposition, and during the First World War they were moved to Moscow for safekeeping before returning. The copies therefore recall both the sixteenth-century council and the city's later effort to retain its heritage. Look for the heraldry as well as Solomon's story, and avoid treating the room's textiles as anonymous decoration.