REVAL or Revel (Russian Revel, formerly Kolywan; Esthonian Tallina), a seaport of Russia, capital of Esthonia, is situated in a bay on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, in 59° 27' N. lat. and 24° 45' E. long., 230 miles west of St Petersburg by rail. The city consists of two parts—the “Domberg” or “Dom,” which occupies a hill, and the lower town on the beach—and is surrounded by pleasant suburban houses with gardens. The “Dorn” contains the castle, where the provincial administration has its seat, and the slopes of the hill are covered with the well-built houses of the German aristocracy. It has its own administration, separate from that of the lower town. This last retains a mediaeval character, λvith narrow tortuous streets and high tile-roofed houses often enclosing large storehouses within their thick walls. Reval has more interesting antiquities than any other town of the Russian Baltic provinces. The old church of St Nicholas, built in 1317, contains many antiquities of the old Catholic times and old German paintings, of which a Dance of Death is especially worthy of notice. It contains also the graves of Holstein Beck and of the Duc de Croy, who was denied burial for his debts, and whose mummy, dressed in velvet and fine lace, was exposed until 1862. The “Domkirche” contains many interesting shields, as also the graves of the circumnavigator Krusenstern, of Pontus-de-la-Gardie, Henry Matthias, Karl Horn, <kc. The church of St Olai, first erected in 1240, and often rebuilt, was completed in 1840 in Gothic style; it has a bell tower 429 feet high. The oldest church is the Esthonian, built in 1219. Water is brought from Lake Järväkylä by an aqueduct. The pleasant situation of the town, surrounded by beautiful parks, attracts in ...summer thousands of people for sea-bathing.
The population of Reval has increased rapidly since it has been connected by rail with St Petersburg and with Baltic Port, 30 miles distant; it reached 50,490 in 1881, against 27,325 in 1867, of whom one-third are Germans, the remainder Esthonians, with a few Russians and Jews. Nearly 15,000 inhabitants belong to the Greek Church. The manufactures are not important, but trade grows steadily. In Ï882 the exports (grain, spirits, &c.) were £1,746,244, the imports (coal, iron, chemicals, Ac.) £6,858,247. In 1882 Reval was visited by 589 foreign ships (291,450 tons), mostly English, German, and Scandinavian, and by 802 coasters (103,000 tons). It has regular steam communication with St Petersburg, Helsingfors, Königsberg, ιfcc.
The high Silurian crag now known as Domberg was early occupied by an Esthonian fort, Lindanissa. In 1219 or 1233 the Danish king Waldemar II. erected there a strong castle and founded the first church of the Holy Ghost. In 1228 the castle was taken by the Livonian knights, but nine years later it returned to the Danes. About the same time Lübeck and Bremen merchants settled there under the protection of the castle, and their settlement soon became an important seaport of the Hanseatic League. It was fortified early in the 14th century, and in 1343 sustained the siege of the revolted Esthonians. Waldemar III. sold Reval and Esthonia to the Livonian knighthood for 19,000 silver marks, and the town belonged to the knighthood till its dissolution in 1561, when Esthonia and Reval surrendered to the Swedish king Erik XVI. A great conflagration in 1433, the pestilence of 1532, the bombardment by the Danes in 1569, and still more the Russo-Livonian War, broke down its formerly wealthy trade. The Russians not only devastated the neighbouring country but also besieged Reval twice, in 1570 and 1577. It was still, however, an important fortress, the forts and walls having been enlarged and fortified by the Swedes. In 1710 the commander Patkull surrendered it to Peter I., who immediately began there the erection of a military port for his Baltic fleet. The successors of Peter I. continued to fortify the access to Reval from the sea, large works being undertaken especially in the first part of the present century. During the Crimean War the suburb Reperbahn, situated on a low slip of coast, was destroyed in view of a possible landing of the allies.
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