Where päkapikud tread

There is a special little store in Tallinn’s vanalinn specialising in TINY – it sells miniature characters and everything they might need to live comfortably. The shop itself is also excruciatingly tilluke or pisike. The inhabitants of Nukupood at the corner of Raekoja plats (the Town Hall Square) and Vanaturu kael (the “neck” or street extending up from the Old Market below) are all hand-made locally, accounting for their friendly, maavillane (“earth-woolly”) aura.

Knitted finger puppet foxes, wolves and siilid (hedgehogs), all manner of dolls, including those in rahvarõivad (folk costumes), wooden farmyard animals, päkapikud (elves) and mini-versions one of the most famous characters in Estonian children’s literature, the rag doll Sipsik created by Eno Raud and artist Edgar Valter in the 1960s – they all reside here until adopted and seem to have an air of knowing far more about the mysteries and true spirit of vanalinn than any of us could ever hope to.

Tilluke vanalinn – a tiny Old Town within Tallinn’s Old Town, in the window of the Nukupood (doll shop) at Raekoja plats 18, the home of all things miniature and hand-made. The towered building is the Raekoda (Town Hall) and the narrow red building to its right stands in the middle of the Saiakang (“white bread passage”), adjacent to Pühavaimu kirik (Church of the Holy Spirit). The lower right hand window of the mini-building on the left is the one you are peering into… Photo: Riina Kindlam - pics/2007/12/18489_1_t.jpg — *Tilluke vanalinn* – a tiny Old Town within Tallinn’s Old Town, in the window of the Nukupood (doll shop) at Raekoja plats 18, the home of all things miniature and hand-made. The towered building is the Raekoda (Town Hall) and the narrow red building to its right stands in the middle of the Saiakang (“white bread passage”), adjacent to Pühavaimu kirik (Church of the Holy Spirit). The lower right hand window of the mini-building on the left is the one you are peering into… Photo: Riina Kindlam