History of the building at Kohtu Street 8

Kohtu 8 hoone

1809 – the owner of Mõdriku and Rägavere manors P.M. Reinhold August von Kaulbars asked the Tallinn City Architect Carl Ludwig Engel to design a city palace to be located at Kohtu Street.

1811 – Master Constructor C.J. Jänichen designed the wings. The façade of the building was designed with a court d’honneur in the French style. 1814 – the construction work was completed. The building is in the Empire style. On the pediment of the façade, there is a motto in Latin: “WITH GOOD WISHES AND BLESSING OF THE ANCESTORS”. Noteworthy are the stucco décor and in particular the back façade with a porch with six Ionian columns at the Pikk Jalg Street The columns rise on the edge of the Toompea Hill like Parthenon in Acropolis in Athens.

1850 – Count Alexander von Benckendorff, who was adjutant general to the Tsar and the head of the 3rd department, became the new owner of the building. His coat of arms can be seen on the door of the right wing.

1871 – Vera von Stenbock became the owner of the building. 1899 – Baroness Natalie von Uexküll, owner of the Kose-Uuemõisa manor, whose residence at Toompea had previously been at 19 Toomkooli Street, acquired the ownership of the house. She still owned it in 1904.

Since the 1920s, the building housed various ministries, for the longest period the Ministry of Finance.

Since the beginning of 2004, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice has been housed in these premises.

Art Historian Jüri Kuuskemaa