Hosting the Olympics games is expensive. Whilst it's an honor to be a big part of the Games, it's also very expensive to do so and these cost may continue long after the games have passed. What to do with purpose built big stadiums afterwards always causes a big problems for host countries. One of these is the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sports in Tallinn, Estonia.
Linnahall
In 1980 Russia hosted the Olympic games. Back then Estonia was still part of USSR until they gained independence in 1991. The capital Tallin was by the sea and Moscow decided to hold the sailing events there. The V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sports was built for this purpose. Today, this building is called the Linnahall, so to be fair to Estonia, Linnahall was an inherited problem that they had no control of.
Like many Olympic venues, Linnahall has become a white elephant. The building has already fallen in despair due to the poor construction quality and finishing, very common during Soviet Times. Source Shiny new buildings have sprung up next to it, making the Linnahall look even sadder than it already is.
From glory to gloom
Despite it being in such a state, it isn't too difficult to imagine what Linnahall could have looked like in its heydays. Pretty impressive I'd say if you don't look underneath the crap. Exciting visitors flock along the long promenade, climbing up the staircase towards the sea to see the Olympic sailing events. Tallinn Old Town is on the left, the building rooftop bobbing out just enough for visitors to catch a glimpse, and be reminded what a beautiful place Tallinn is. It must have been such a big contrast to what it is today.
Graffiti runs wild here now, as would be expected of any dilapidated buildings. The fall of communism was followed by Linnahall's fall from grace. A price worth paying in exchange for freedom I'd say.
Tensions across the gulf
The rear of Linnahall stretches out to Tallinn Bay and the Gulf of Finland. This would have been where the sailing events were held. I tried to find photos of Linnahall during the Olympic games but not many came up. It was 1980 after all, and many western countries had boycotted the Moscow games. Maybe that was part of the reason there weren't that many photos of the games. During my online search, I found one very interesting observation
It is said, like many other Soviet buildings of the time, that the design and position next to the sea would allow for the building to be fortified easily. Its wide walkways and stairs would make the tiered platform roof accessible for tanks and other armaments if needed. Source
Looking back at my photos now, this is so true. Finland is less than 100 km away and Sweden 430km. The whole layout of the structure would have made it pretty easy for Russia to launch some sort of attack if they needed. No wonder these poort neighbours still feel uneasy today.
Afterthought
It was a bag of mixed emotion visiting Linnahall. From the moment I first saw the rather grand entrance, the impressive promenade leading to the staircase. So much space but no life. It was like this corner of the world had been casted aside. So sad. Then the grafittis. A familiar sight at all delap buildings, forgotten by most but not the urbex community. I walked out towards the sea. It was refresh and calm. Momentarily I forgot what was behind me, both distance wise and time wise. Maybe for the best.
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
Hi @livinguktaiwan,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
How absolutely sad that a place so beautiful is so desolate. I think it is dumb that they do this for the Olympics. It should be part of the deal that you need to have a use for the facilities after the games are over. Either that or just always have them in the same place. That's how it used to be and it worked fine. It might help stymie some of the corruption that is rampant in the selection committee.
I read that Estonia did use it for gigs and conferences etc after the games, until around the 90s when it didn't become cost effective. Seems like they gave up in the end.
The fact new structures are being built next to it and most likely in much better quality, makes it even more unattractive for investors
Wow, absolutely ridiculous!
Other countries would have utilize the space wisely for organizing for example public line dancing lessons, Tai Chi lessons, skateboarding or rollerblading competitions. It's possible to repaint the entire place to make it look brand new again.
I think maybe it's a different culture from Asia, where I'm sure there'll be plenty of aunties dancing every day. That said, it is very exposed here and if you erect any shade areas by the entrance it loses what little character it has left
Thanks for your kind reply. Decorating the place with mosaic tiles made with recyclable materials or even sculpture made from recyclable materials will be equally good too.
Very sad to see this kind of decay of a major structure that was once important, and a symbol of something thriving. The Olympics are strange, though... it's great prestige for a a place to host the Games, but most of the host cities don't actually need many of the facilities built for the occasion. I suppose the secret — if there is one — is to repurpose the structures for something actually relevant to the community.
Nice juxtaposition of the shiny new with the decay!
It would be interesting to see how different host countries have dealt with the venues after the games. I know after London hosted the games in 2012 its made a lot of effort to reuse the venues. The Olympic park was just outside London accessible by public transport and next to a very big shopping centre, so I think utilisation is pretty good. And the main stadium is now taken over by West Ham (one of the Premier League football clubs) solving one very big problem
Yes "so much space and no life" and once again so much healthy earth concreted over 😯
If they did it up properly or even maintained it a bit better, it's lovely to sit there by the sea and relax
Apparently this is inevitable, I read of several abandoned facilities, for example from the Athens Olympics in 2004, Rio de Janeiro 2016...
That's such a shame, many of these venues cost so much to build and it's gory is so short lived
Totally, a great waste of resources :(
Salt Lake City is trying to host the Olympics in 2034. We hosted the 2002 Olympics and so much stuff was built for it back then. Now it sits mostly abandoned. One good thing that came out of hosting the Olympics back then was that our interstate infrastructure was upgraded quite a bit to be able to handle all the traffic. We have outgrown most of that infrastructure, so it will be nice if we are able to host the games again and if more upgrades are done.
That's so brave of the City to bid for the games again so soon, it's so expensive. If you ignore the cost side, hosting the games is really a fantastic experience for the locals. I went to the London games in 2012,and the torch route as well as the cycling passed right outside my flat back then. I won't ever experience this again
Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2186.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
It's always a shame that things fall apart like this, money spent for nothing😌
It had it short term purpos, that's about it
I just can not understand, why people need to spray on the walls or damage them.. I was there three years ago and experienced a beautiful sunset from the stairs.
I went in late morning and watching the sea was very nice, I can imagine the sunset view would be gorgeous there
Yes, it is!:)
I 💕 Tallin In fact I love Estonia full stop, I remember having a mooch around Linnahall, could I bugger get inside!!!
Great brutalist architecture and street art to admire though, happy days great memories, i hope you enjoyed it
When I was there I was thinking if you guys would itch to get inside, I'd definitely follow you in!!!
Believe me it was impossible! sadly
They could have turned this place into recreational purposes or concert space but I guess because of history and the USSR period, bureaucracy, and rules nobody paid attention to it. I have seen such stadiums in Kharkiv as well, completely destroyed and some were under renovation proposals and waited to be approved. Sad to see such abandoned space... Great discovery Pauline...
Congratulations @livinguktaiwan! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 49000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts: