Toompea [tänav] (Toompea)

‘On the cathedral’ (see previous entry). Originally Die Dom-Brücke (cathedral bridge, 1865) after the wooden bridge over the then moat between Toompea vallivärav (Toompea gate) and Suvorovi A. (now Kaarli), a project driven among others by alderman Falck (Falgi). Since the bridge was long, the road was named Die Langebrücke in 1876, but since it was no longer there, it was dumped in favor of Der alte Domweg (old cathedral way) in 1879, etc., until 1890’s Большой Вышгородскій спускъ (Bol'shoy Vyshgorodskíy spusk", or “grand upper-city descent”) then downhill all the way with trilingual Karlstraße variants in 1907, a less-than-year-long stint as Nõukogude (Soviet) in 1941, back to Charles and kin until 1948 when it finally acquired its current name. Pushkin’s great-grandfather, Abram Gannibal, an African of uncertain origin who arrived in Russia as a child of 8 as a ‘gift’ to Peter the Great and rose to become general, lived at No.1, known as Komandandimaja (commander’s house), from 1742-52 while superintendent of Reval, Tallinn’s name from 1200s-1918. One of Vanalinn’s 4 main Wards (see also All-Linn).