Estonia Theatre

About

Estonia Theatre is an historic landmark building in central Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. It houses the Estonian National Opera and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The original Estonia Theatre building was designed in Jugendstil by Finnish architects Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönn, and constructed between 1911 and 1913 on the initiative of the Estonia Society, with popular effort and widespread financial support from the Estonian people.

The Estonia Theatre was opened to the general public on 24 August 1913. At the time, it was the largest building in Tallinn. After the Republic of Estonia had become an independent country in 1918, the Estonia Theatre building was the main venue of the newly elected Estonian Constituent Assembly in April 1919.

The Assembly disbanded itself after following parliamentary elections, in December 1920. The theatre building was extensively damaged by fire caused by incendiary bombs in the 9-10 March 1944 Soviet aerial bombing raid on Tallinn. When reconstructed during the post-World War II Soviet occupation of Estonia, the southern facade was retained but the overall reconstruction was in a more classical style, with additional elements of...