Apteegi (Apteek)

Chemist’s, pharmacy, apothecary’s. Named after Tallinn’s oldest apothecary, the nearby Raeapteegi mentioned as far back as 1422. Apteegi as street name was first given in municipal records of 1611 as Apoteker Gasse, with later (1614) marginalia alters die Lütke Schröder Strasse (formerly the Little Tailor’s street). Prior to this (1389), the street was known/described as parva platea sartorum, qua itur de foro ad monachos (little road of the ‘tailors’ [see below], which goes from the market to the monks, i.e. to Vene), and before that (1368) platea monachorum, road of the monks, these being the Dominican Friars (see Dominiiklaste). Note on tailors... the Latin sartor indicates someone who repairs, and stitching wounds to Saville Row is as far as barbers to surgeons (cf. the red and white spiraled barber’s pole: red for blood-letting and white for bandages). So the street probably specialized in buttons and bones, leeches and breeches. Makes you glad to live in the 21^st‑C.