Katariina käik

Hidden between Vene street (No 14a) the Müürivahe street is what is considered the most charming little alley in the Old Town known as Katariina käik. Katariina käik (St. Catherine’s Passage)  takes its name after the 13th c. Dominican Katariina monastery borders one side of it.

The buildings that form the unique medieval ensemble of the scenic alley were built when the monks left Toompea to house their order on this site. Various attics, cellars, stone storehouses, arches, courtyards, worked stone and wrought iron objects, were added in the course of time but the alley’s facade was in essence formed in the 15th c. according to the style of the time.

Katariina Käik (Katariina Lane) awakened to its new life in the summer of 1995 when several artists moved into the historic buildings, turning them into their functioning art studios. The Katariina Guild is today the connecting tissue between the alley’s past and present, a family of artists that have managed to connect the different exhibition studios to a common cause, one that has elevated this small road into a top attraction of Tallinn’s Old Town. More