Toompea Castle Tallinn, Estonia

The bastion of Tallinn, Toompea Castle, proudly sits on the crest of the Upper Old Town, presiding over the city sprawling below. A wooden fortification was originally built on the same hill in the 9th Century, but was toppled by the Danes shortly after 1200 - who then constructed an impressive stone edifice, much of which still remains today. For seven centuries foreign rulers governed Tallinn from this spot, before Estonia established its first republic and constructed the Riigikogu - the Estonian Parliament - on the same grounds. A brightly coloured 1920s building, in the castle courtyard, it makes for an interesting contrast!