St. Catherine’s Passage
Easily the most picturesque of Old Town's lanes, this half-hidden walkway runs behind what used to be St. Catherine's Church. It connects Vene street with the Müürivahe street where the town's famous knit market operates. What makes the passage particularly interesting is that it's home to the St. Catherine's Guild, a collection of craft workshops where artists use traditional methods to create and sell glassware, hats, quilts, ceramics, jewellery, hand-painted silk and other wares. The workshops are housed in the small, 15th- to 17th-century rooms on the south side of the lane, and are set up in an open-studio fashion so visitors can watch the artists at work, be it glass-blowing, weaving or pottery making. As absorbing as these displays can be, St. Catherine's passage is more about ambience than anything else. No other place in Tallinn combines creativity with a medieval atmosphere quite like it. |