Toompea (Toompea)

‘On the cathedral’. Toom, from Ger. Dom, from Old Fr. dôme, borrowed from Ital. duomo from Lat. domus, shorthanded for ‘God’s house’ and thence, due to association with the church’s structure, for the dome itself. A wooden fortress known in Russian as Вышгородъ (Vyshgorod, or upper city) is said to have existed there as far back as the 10^th C. Locality names shifting between the this, the square and a market place include castrum (fortress, 1319), volving the re-used alongside its 1486 name of Domberg (Cathedral Hill) in 1907. Earlier records had it as ‘hill’, mons (1327), bergh (1372) or, at one stage, just plain then der Dohm (Ger.) or toompä (Old Est.). One of Vanalinn’s 4 main Wards (see also All-Linn). Legend has it as Kalev’s final resting-place (see Kalevipoja); archaeologists are still digging…