Nõelasilm (0)
Eye of the needle. Portal at the end of what used to be a narrow street significantly enlarged by the March 9th 1944 bombing (see Harju). The Estonian name seems to be a curtailed translation of the Latin acus episcopi, where acus means needle or, by extension, eye of the needle, likely a calque on Bremen’s oldest gate, Die Natel (MLG de Natlen), aka Bischofsnadel (Bishop’s Needle) or Bischofstor (Bishop’s Gate), built sometime in the early 1200s. Being its first city gate and probably relatively small, earliest records (1274) already suggest it was designed to hinder military forces from entering the city (pretty much the job of any medieval city gate), with subsequent folk etymology accentuating the narrative to make it so small that even a horse and rider, then knight, could not pass through. And small this one is. Past names include Sunte Nyclawes stegel (St Nicholas’ steps, undated, but prob. oldest), Unter den Linden and Подъ Липовая (under the lindens, 1890), Kirchenstegel (church steps, 1913), etc. Nõelasilm was re-built and re-opened 20 August 2007 and, since the name theoretically applies to the archway itself, the alleyway is sometimes referred to as Trepi tänav, erroneously due to it already existing elsewhere, to be confirmed.