The Kiek in de Kök Fortifications Museum consists of four medieval defense towers and a series of underground tunnels that over the years have been home to soldiers, punks, and even fine art. In Low German, kiek in de kök means “peep into the kitchen. The main tower got this nickname thanks to the ability of tower occupants to see into kitchens of nearby houses.
In 1930s several air raid and anti-gas shelters were built to Tallinn in preparation for the impending war. The old bastion passages were cleaned from rubble and converted into anti-gas air raid shelter with state-of-the-art ventilation, air sealed doors and thick layer of sand on the floor. During the WWII, the shelter was used during the air raids and saved many lives. However, gas weapon was never used in Tallinn.
During the Soviet era, in 1950s, the anti-gas air raid shelter got a complete overhaul, stone slabs were installed to the floors, independent ventilation and electricity systems installed together with telephone lines and pipelines for running water. The tunnels were equipped with toilets, three-level metal bunk beds, and all other necessary equipment to provide accommodation for people during a nuclear war. The nuclear war shelter was abandoned in the second half of 1970s.
During the 1970s, the tunnels were used as a storage venue for several institutions, including the sculptures of the Art Foundation, some documents etc. The passages however were not a safe place to storage anything due to occasional invaders and so the sculptures and other items were moved elsewhere in early 1980s.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent Estonia had many people who could not cope with rapid changes taking place and ended up in the streets. So from 1991 to 2004 the abandoned tunnels were populated by local homeless, who had set up camp over there and some of them lived there for over a decade.
In 2004, Tallinn city started to renovate the tunnels to make them accessible for public.
