Suur-Patarei (Suur-Patarei)

Greater/Upper Battery (of the military persuasion), after the former ‘Patarei’ marine fortress. Previously spelled Battarei (1885) or Batarei (1908, etc.), and by the Germans Große Batteriestraße (1877, etc.) or Groß-Batteriestraße (1942), following its earlier appellation of Köismäe tee / Reperbahn(straße) or ropemakers’ street. Also, according to TT, once called На косе (Na kose, [nothing to do with Kose] translating as luitel, see Luite), On the Dune / Sand-drifts, an ideal place for rope-making. Dissected by a railway line, the northern part now leads to the ‘Patarei’, converted into Tallinn’s Central Prison in 1919, now disused following its merger with Tallinn’s other prison at Magasini 35 (2003), built on a 1944-1949 prisoner-of-war camp originally known as Correctional Work Colony no. 5, now closed and relocated to Soodevahe just outside Tallinn, and the new chamber-system prison at Maardu (2004) where miscreants are entitled to fewer opportunities for exchanging tricks of the trade. See Väike-Patarei.