Raekoja plats (Raekoda)
Town hall square. Lit. council house, the rae comes from German raten, to advise, as in Rathaus, town- or city-hall. First recorded as forum (1313) then the name oddly disappeared from the records until re-emerging (1732) as suur turro (and variants, Suur turg, etc.: big market) until 1923 when it acquired its present name, with other interludes as Deutscher Markt (German market) and Schwedischer Markt or Шведскій рынокъ (Swedish market, see note on Russian spelling in Intro) to differentiate it from Vene turg (Russian market), present-day Viru väljak, as well as Neuer Markt (new market) to differentiate it from Vana Turg (old market). Until 1816, Raekoja plats was also equipped with miscellaneous devices designed to discourage recalcitrant behaviour: pillory, manacles, leg‑ and neck‑irons. Mass entertainment may seem to have come a long way since then, but probably hasn’t... See Vana-Veerenni.
Nunne (Nunn)
Nun. Today’s genitive is Nunna, so this could be an earlier spelling. Named after a one-time nearby nunnery, the Cistercian convent of St. Michael, Püha Miikaeli klooster (see Nunnadetagune torn). Recorded in the Middle Ages as susterstrate (1361) or platea sancti monialium (1364), and later as platea sororum (1480) and Süsterstrasse (1606), the Soviets, perhaps due to its ending up in front of another place of mass congregation, Balti Jaam, christened this and Väike-Kloostri with the slightly more pedestrian denomination of Vaksali (1950-1987).
Lossi (Loss)
Castle. Named after Glehni N.v.’s residence at the western end of Trepi: Hohenhaupt (‘high head’), a name calqued on the first German name of Kõrgepea nukk. Renamed (1950-1990) Basseini during the Soviet Occupation. See also Lossi plats.
Piiskopi (Piiskop)
Bishop. First known as Douglasstraße or Douglasberg then variations on Duglase, Tuglase, Дугласская after the infamous Swedish mercenary Count Gustaf Otto Douglas (1687-1771), Governor of Estonia (1738-1740) and responsible for extensive burning and brutality in Finland during the Great Northern War. Renamed (1948-1989) as Kallaku during the Soviet occupation.